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CASE STUDY:
SECONDARY
VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
A GENERATOR OF
GREAT IDEAS
Prof. Zdravko Zivkovic, PhD
Isidora Zivkovic, Jelena Soudil-Prokopec,
Olivera Amidzic, Jasmina Maric, Hrvoje Biuklic,
Doris Goljevacki, Romana Davini
FUTURE4US Project participants:
Scientific Center for Creative Development IDEALL Novi Sad, Serbia
Vocational Secondary School "Branko Radicevic" Ruma, Serbia
School of Economics and Administration Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Art School “Enrico and Umberto Nordio”, Trieste, Italy
Co-funded by the Erasmus+
Programme of the European Union
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Contents
Introduction - Dream. Believe. Dare. Do. ............................................................................. 4
Definitions of creativity .................................................................................................... 6
Task – solution matrix ........................................................................................................... 8
Matrix of creativity types ................................................................................................... 11
Individual, group and organizational creativity .................................................................. 15
Big ‘C’ creativity and small ’c’ creativity ........................................................................... 16
Left and right brain .............................................................................................................. 19
Knowledge and creativity .................................................................................................... 22
Imagination and creativity ................................................................................................... 24
Games and creativity ........................................................................................................... 26
Resources for creativity ....................................................................................................... 28
Imagination ......................................................................................................................... 34
Enemies of creativity ........................................................................................................... 35
Barriers to creative thinking ................................................................................................ 37
Curiosity as a condition of creativity .................................................................................. 42
Self-consciousness .............................................................................................................. 43
Recognition of our own fears .............................................................................................. 44
Passion – a key driver of creativity ..................................................................................... 47
Fostering creativity .............................................................................................................. 50
Stimulation of group creativity ........................................................................................... 54
Great ideas criteria .............................................................................................................. 57
Creativity and innovation .................................................................................................... 60
The GAME model ............................................................................................................... 65
The role of games to creativity ............................................................................................ 66
Fostering mental agility by Doris puzzle ............................................................................ 71
1. Survey - self-assessment of individual creativity ............................................................ 75
2. Introduction to the theory of creativity - obstacles and stimulating examples ................ 76
3. Test question ................................................................................................................... 80
4. Warming-up - Figures without a wrong solution ............................................................ 81
5. Foster the imagination - throw away the limits of the impossible .................................. 83
6. Group thinking -Brainstorming ....................................................................................... 84
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7. Individual thinking - Brainwriting .................................................................................. 86
8. Selection and evaluation of ideas - 6 Thinking Hats ....................................................... 88
9. Virtual Stock Exchange - Investing in ideas ................................................................... 90
10. The creative workshop evaluation ................................................................................. 92
Reminder: ............................................................................................................................ 99
References: ............................................................................................. 102
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Abstract
The 4th industrial revolution is at the door and within 10 years nothing will be
the same as before. Revolutionary changes have already taken place over the last
100 years, including the Internet Revolution, with radical changes in
communication, commerce, transportation, banking, industry, everywhere except
education, still based on the 16th century subject-based learning, with the
difference that instead of petroleum lamps, electric lamps are used and colorful
markers instead of chalk, everything else is more or less the same. When the
Second World War began, which is the longest river in China and where a
semiconductor is used for - these are facts that may be interesting as a trivia, to
compete in a quiz, but will certainly have no significance for the progress of
humanity. While 5 years old children have an unlimited imagination, curiosity
and ideas, the school removes this creativity and imagination very successfully,
and as a result we have an intellectual conformism that is reflected in the
acceptance of majority opinion without critically thinking, or seeking an answer
the question of why this is so, or even less, whether something could change to be
better than it is now.
Through the Erasmus + EU funded project "Be creative - secure your future", we
will pioneer the transformation of students from 3 vocational high schools from
Serbia, Croatia and Italy, from "sponges" who passively embrace encyclopedic
knowledge to curious students who have sufficient confidence to use their innate
(but hidden and neglected) creativity to generate fresh and original business
ideas, and more importantly, become aware of their creative capabilities, which
will provide them with a better and safer future. For moderators who want to
apply the methodology of this project to their schools, we provide a
comprehensive explanation both the theories necessary to understand the essence
of fostering creativity and how to practically design creative workshops by
combining techniques and methods from our experience, with other methods to
meet the specific needs and desires of their environment.
* Disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European
Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the
Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.
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Introduction - Dream. Believe. Dare. Do.
In the year 1450 the "information revolution" has begun. All started with the
invention of the printing press by German inventor Guttenberg, who had a
genius idea to split the text into its individual components. Individual letters,
easily movable, were put together to form words; words separated by blank
spaces formed lines of type; and lines of type were brought together to make
up a page. Since letters could be arranged into any format, an infinite variety
of texts could be printed by reusing and resetting the type. Printing could and
did spread new ideas quickly and with greater impact. The impact of this
information revolution was equal as the Internet today.
Thanks to this invention and the availability of knowledge through printed
books, in the 16th century, a school reform was implemented in Germany
and a subject-based education system was introduced, which is still used
today as the prevailing learning system.
And while a new Internet revolution took place in the information field in
the 20th century, the school system remained the same for 500 years. Only
recently, an educational revolution has taken place in Finland, replacing the
subject-based learning system with a topics-based learning system.
The consequences of this traditional method of learning, which is based on
memorization and reproduction of facts, are today extremely unfavorable, in
light of the changes brought about by the new 4th Industrial Revolution,
which favors creativity and social intelligence as conditions for progress.
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Today's students are neither prepared nor taught to think creatively, and the
facts they learn at school are changing faster than new printed books arrive
at school.
Even when they have an idea, most students give up their ideas because of
that way of thinking even before they start looking for ways to apply them.
For success, besides curiosity, they need two important things: courage and
self-confidence; the courage to try new things, and the self-confidence to not
give up because of other people's advice and various obstacles on the way to
the realization of the idea. Walt Disney had formulated this in just four words
and with that said it all, "Dream. Believe. Dare. Do".
The largest number of inventions in the human history was made in the last
100 years, along with the progressive socio-economic development that
marked the industrial revolution, the development of science and modern
technical and technological development. Some of the inventions that have
become part of our everyday life were not part of the most optimistic
expectations. Common to all of these inventions is a simple but underutilized
human capacity, which is called creativity. Everything starts from the
embryo of creativity, such as ideas. In the early stages of human history, it
was relatively easy to come up with something new and useful. As new
products are designed to fill up this gap, it becomes harder to originate
something new. As time goes by many ideas materialize in the growing
number and find a really new idea becomes the ultimate challenge.
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If the basis of all inventions is ideas, and new ideas need creativity, first of
all we need to ask ourselves a simple question: whether I am creative?
To be able to answer this question, we should understand what creativity
really is?
Part 1: Creativity – theoretical
background
Definitions of creativity
The Oxford Dictionary defines creativity as: “the use of imagination or
original ideas to create something; inventiveness.”
Other authors define creativity as producing new and useful ideas by an
individual or small group of individuals working together. Thus, creativity
involves innovation and value.
According to Kirton “the concept of creativity may be broken down into two
dimensions, conceptualized as different styles of creativity. The two styles
of creativity are termed ‘adaptive’ and ‘innovative’ creativity. The adaptor
prefers to improve things within existing frameworks and existing
boundaries. The innovator prefers to do things differently, restructuring
problems and frameworks.
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For example, a jazz musician may be highly creative within an existing
genre, such as bebop. Another form of creativity is to develop a new style,
such as cool jazz. But are these different kinds of creativity only different in
terms of style, or is there also a difference in level here? In fact, we are faced
with a situation in which the product is both innovative and adaptive at the
same time, seen from different perspectives.” 1
The question is what is "novelty"? Novelty is the key that defines the criteria
of creativity. “Taken in its most literate sense, novelty means something that
has never happened before, or something that has never been done
previously. In this strict sense of the term novelty, we are referring to what
we may call objective novelty.”2
Hausman argues that “the concept of creativity requires invoking the concept
of ‘radical novelty’, in order to distinguish it from trivial forms of novelty,
for instance in the form of minimal differences and variations. From this
position he argues in favor of the following points: (a) the requirement of
radical novelty - the newness or intelligibility of the event, rather than the
trivial newness of simple differences, and (b) the requirement of value - the
values that contribute to created outcomes.” 3
1 Kirton, M.J.: Adaptors and Innovators: Problem solvers in organizations. In Grønhaug, K. and
Kaufmann, G. (eds.), Innovation: A cross-disciplinary approach, Norwegian Universities Press,
Oslo, pp. 65–85 2 Kaufmann Geir: Two Kinds of Creativity – But Which Ones?, Creativity and Innovation
Management, 13 (3), 2004, p. 156 3 Hausman, C.R.: Philosophical perspectives on the study of creativity. In Isaksen, S.G. (ed.)
Frontiers of creativity research: Beyond the basics, Bearly Limited, Buffalo, NY, 1987, pp.
380–89
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“When the concept pertains to the magnitude of the novelty, like creating a
new genre in art, a new paradigm in scientific research or a completely new
kind of technology, the concept of radical newness is not desirable, because
it exalts the concept to almost divine proportions and also runs against the
concept of degrees of creativity that is meaningful and should be preserved.”4
“At the lowest level, novelty could be taken to mean just ‘different’. But in
this sense, this would make everything novel, because every single thing is
in principle different from all things in the past. At the very least, each entity
exists in a different time or location.”5
Weisberg made the claim that “any solution to a problem is creative as long
as it is novel and fulfills the requirements of the task. The basic idea seems
to be that of a continuum of creativity, ranging from minimal to maximal
novelty in problem solution.” 6
Task – solution matrix7
“We will distinguish between two kinds of novelty: novelty on the stimulus
and novelty on the response side.
Making this distinction offers us the opportunity to clarify even further the
conceptual domains of intelligence and creativity. We may now distinguish
4 Kaufmann Geir: Two Kinds of Creativity – But Which Ones?, Creativity and Innovation
Management, 13 (3), 2004, p. 156 5 Boden, M.A.: What is creativity? In Boden, M.A. (ed.), Dimensions of creativity, MIT Press,
Boston, MA, 1994, pp. 76–117 6 Weisberg, R.W.: Creativity and knowledge: A challenge to theories. In Sternberg, R.J. (ed.),
Handbook of creativity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999, pp. 226–250 7 Kaufmann Geir: Two Kinds of Creativity – But Which Ones?, Creativity and Innovation
Management, 13 (3), 2004, p. 159
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between four different categories involving different combinations of tasks
novelty (novelty on the stimulus side) and novelty in the solutions required
(response novelty). See the figure 1.
C.1. Familiar Task – Familiar Solution
In this category we find typical routine problem solving, involving standard
operating procedures. This could, for example be routines for ordering new
products, routine procedures for adjusting prices, using a known formula to
solve a familiar equation in mathematics, etc. Little creativity is involved in
this kind of problem-solving endeavor, albeit sometimes we may be
confronted with small, but important deviations to be adjusted either on the
task or the solution side.”
Figure 1. Task – solution matrix
Source: Kaufmann Geir: Two Kinds of Creativity – But Which Ones?
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C.2. Novel Task – Familiar Solution
“This is an interesting category and represents a conceptual home base of
intelligence proper. By definition, intelligence refers to the activity of
employing previous experience in new task situations.”8 “We may call this
category ‘adaptive intelligence’ because we are here dealing with tasks that,
despite their novelty, are amenable to solutions derived from an existing
generative rule system for a given problem space. “9
C.3. Familiar Task – Novel Solution
“In order to get a competitive edge, companies constantly have to try to find
inadequacies in existing products and technologies compared to a vision of
a future desired state that involves an improvement over the status quo. As
an example, imagine existing TV technology. The standard TV set has a
fixed sized monitor, which people seem to accept as natural. But if we create
a vision of a future state of affairs that offers a flexible-sized monitor, which
could be adjusted to small size or large size according to our needs and
desires, we may realize that we have created a disturbance or deviation by
comparing the existing state of affairs to a future possible, and potentially
improved, state of affairs. In this scenario, we may argue that what we are
doing is trying to find a new solution to a familiar situation. In this process,
8 Gardner, M.K. and Sternberg, R.J.: Novelty and intelligence. In Sternberg, R.J. (ed.), Mind in
context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 38–71 9 Sternberg, R.J.: What is the common thread of creativity? American Psychologist, vol. 56,
2001, pp. 160–162
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the most interesting part of creativity is first to find an interesting new
problem to engage our imagination and to enable us to innovate.”
“This process of first finding an interesting new problem, through
envisioning a possible, desired future state of affairs as a step toward finding
new solutions to problems may be called proactive creativity.”10
Matrix of creativity types 11
In spite of unitary creativity theory, Unsworth argues against homogeneity
through the development of a matrix of four creativity types: responsive,
expected, contributory, and proactive.
“Behaviors are initiated either through self-determined choice or because of
external demands.”12 Self-determined behaviors are those that are
autonomous – that is, "people experience themselves as initiators of their
own behavior". For example, a wish to be creative or a desire to achieve a
goal state represents an internal driver for creativity. However, an individual
may engage in a behavior because the situation requires that it be performed.
Thus, job descriptions (such as that given to a research and development
scientist) or experimental requirements to write poems present external
10 Heinzen, T.E.: Proactive creativity. In Runco, M.A. and Pritzker, S.R. (eds.), Encyclopedia of
creativity, Vol. 1. Academic Press, New York, 2001, pp. 429– 434 11 Unsworth Kerrie: Unpacking Creativity, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 26, No.
2, 2001, pp. 289-297 12 Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M.: The support of autonomy and the control of behavior. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 1987, vol. 53, pp. 1024-1037
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demands for creativity. However, besides the external demands for
creativity, there are also internal demands, thus we have more complex
continuum that ranges from internally driven engagement to externally
driven engagement.
“The second dimension of creative engagement is related to categorizing the
problem itself. The degree to which the problem has been formulated before
the creator begins the process makes a continuum ranging from closed to
open problems.”13
“A true closed problem is one that is presented to the participant, when the
method for solving the problem is known.”14 “Open problems, however,
occur when the participant is required to find, invent, or discover the
problems.”15 “Most artistic endeavors generally represent open problems;
responses to a suggestion scheme illustrate outcomes of organizational open
problems. There is a second dimension of creativity engagement - a problem
type – that ranges from closed, presented problems to open, discovered
problems.”16
From the two dimensions of driver type and problem type, a matrix of
creativity types can be derived (see Figure 2). On the vertical axis, problem
type ranges from closed (presented to the individual) to open (discovered by
13 Getzels, J. W., & Csikszentmihalyi, M.: Scientific creativity, Science Journal, 1967, vol. 3,
pp. 80-84 14 Getzels, J. W.: Problem-finding and the inventiveness of solutions. Journal of Creative
Behavior, 1975, vol.9, pp. 12-18 15 Dillon, J. T.:Problem finding and solving. Journal of Creative Behavior, 1987, vol.16, pp. 97-
111 16 Unsworth Kerrie: Unpacking Creativity, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 26, No.
2, 2001, pp. 290
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the individual). The horizontal axis represents the drivers behind
engagement in the creative process and ranges from externally to internally
driven. There are four major creativity categories:
Responsive Creativity
The externally driven, closed-problem field is one in which the participant
responds to the requirements of the situation and to the presented problem.
This is "responsive creativity" in which the individual has the least control
over problem-solving choices. In an organizational setting, examples of
responsive creativity might be focus groups specifically arranged to solve
particular problems.
Figure 2. Matrix of creativity types
Source: Unsworth K.: Unpacking Creativity
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Expected Creativity
Creativity that is brought about via an external expectation, but with a self-
discovered problem, is labeled "expected creativity." In an organization,
examples of expected creativity can be found in total quality management
practices (TQM).
Contributory Creativity
The third category describes a type of creativity that is self-determined and
based upon a clearly formulated problem. This "contributory creativity" is
evident in an employee who chooses to engage in creativity to help solve a
problem with which he or she is not directly involved. Therefore, those who
responded were probably driven more by internal motivators than external
demands.
Proactive Creativity
The last type of creativity is "proactive creativity." This occurs when
individuals, driven by internal motivators, actively search for problems to
solve. Volunteered suggestions for improving the manufacturing process by
shop-floor workers and unprompted proposals for new products both
represent organizational proactive creativity.
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Individual, group and organizational creativity
We need to distinguish individual and group creativity. Individual creativity
is a function of antecedent conditions, cognitive style and ability, personality
factors, relevant knowledge, motivation, social influences, and contextual
influences. The group, in which the creativity of individuals occurs,
establishes a direct social impact on the creativity of the individuals.
Individual creativity, in turn, contributes to creativity in groups.
Group creativity is not the simple aggregate of all group members' creativity,
although group creativity is clearly a function of the creativity of individuals
in the group. In addition, group creativity is influenced by group composition
(e.g., diversity), group characteristics (e.g., cohesiveness, group size), and
group processes (e.g., problem-solving strategies, social information
processes), and contextual influences stemming from the organization.
“Organizational creativity is the creation of a valuable, useful new product,
service, idea, procedure, or process by individuals working together in a
complex social system.
Organizational creativity is a function of group creativity and contextual
influences (organizational culture, reward systems, resource constraints),
including those which come from the environment.”17
17 Woodman, R.W., John E., Sawyer, J.E., Griffin, R.W.: Toward a theory of organizational
creativity, Academy of Management Review, 1993, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 293-321
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Big ‘C’ creativity and small ’c’ creativity
Some authors insist on the difference in the level of creativity on the basis of
impact that creativity has on society, so they outline different creativity with
big ‘C’ and little ‘c’.
Basically, there is a consensus that children are not actually creative, “given
the definitions of creativity that are necessary to explain the important and
influential innovations that have impacted our lives. Some of us are willing
to retain a residual notion of small c creativity - the everyday cleverness that
makes us smile or makes life easier - for the novel, unusual actions of
children, but we all distinguish this from Big C Creativity, the creation of
culture -transforming products that is found only in adults.”18
This statement requires explanation of what is meant by children. If this is
the age up to 7 years or so, it is logical that we cannot expect young children
to develop new products, services and technologies that will change our
lives; however, the approach that only adults can come to the idea of new
products and services would be truly discriminatory. Adolescents, for
example, have much more fresh and original ideas than most adults and
employees who, because of conformism, accept the prevailing ways of
working and thinking, and as many years of work and life experience they
have, the more rarely go beyond the frames (out of the box). The main
problem is that pupils and students in schools often did not get involved in
the creative process of generating ideas for new products and services. Field
18 Sawyer, R. Keith: Creativity and Development, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC, USA,
2003, p.240
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experience with adolescents just deny such claims and lead to such ideas that
experts in the industry cannot even imagine.
Am I creative?19
Everybody may ask themselves, sooner or later, this question. “Field
experience has shown that roughly half of the people believe they have skills
in creativity while the other half are filled with doubts about their creative
abilities. One of the fundamental principles of Innovation Management is
“Believe in Creativity.” Psychologists used to say ‘If you think you can, you
can and if you think you can’t, you can’t!’
There is a dilemma: why do some individuals have a greater ability to
discover new and often amazing ideas than others? Researchers often trying
to get an answer to the following question:” Are these people born with this
creative ability, or is it gained through supportive parents, mentors, or other
environmental factors? Is creativity a mystery, an untouchable skill with
which only a few are blessed?”
There are mainly two approaches. Many view creativity as an integral part
of the DNA with which everyone is born. Others view creativity as a “lucky
break,” usually reserved for those who have a natural talent for creative
expression, like Shakespeare, Van Gogh, da Vinci, or Disney. Those are the
special ones, the gifted ones, the crazy ones. These gifted ones supposedly
19 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002
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gravitate to “creative” fields like advertising and the arts, but certainly not to
fields like finance or medicine.
Is creative thinking the domain of only a few? Fortunately, this is not true. If
the definition of creativity is “the discovery of a new connection,” then
everyone has the ability to be creative. Everyone has the ability to connect
one idea with another, to find an idea in another department, organization, or
industry, and connect it with another to solve the challenge at hand. Artistic
creativity is only one form of creativity. There are many other forms or
avenues of creative expression, such as finding a new idea to better serve a
customer, discovering a new recipe using only the ingredients in the
refrigerator, or trying a new route to and from work.
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (famous by discovering Vitamin C), used to say:
“Genius is seeing what everyone else sees and thinking what no one else has
thought.”
It is proven that the most important factor in creative thinking is a person’s
own belief in his creative ability. A leader cannot just ask people to be
creative. They must first believe that they are. Some of the characteristics of
creative thinkers are: Curious - Imaginative - Enterprising - Ready to change
the situation - Communicative - Tolerant in the unknown - Enjoys a
challenge - Intuitive - Flexible - Persistent - Patient - Always awake.
Tip: the easiest of the creative-thinking exercises is: You have just won a
million dollars. What would you do? Anyone who knows the answer to this
question is creative.
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Left and right brain
Dundon clarified “when discussing creative-thinking skills, there is usually
a reference to the “right brain” versus “left brain” model of thinking. Roger
Sperry won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his groundbreaking work
in the area of brain dominance. Each side, or hemisphere, of the brain
possesses specialized and differentiated functions. The left side of the brain
is thought to dominate language, logic, and scientific and analytical tasks,
while the right side of the brain is thought to dominate visual, spatial, and
artistic tasks. In essence, the left side deals with more details while the right-
side deals with more abstract processes. Over time, the right brain has
become associated with creativity.”
“Logical thought and physical tasks are undertaken by the left brain, with the
right brain doing the more fiddly and creative thinking. To be creative it is
necessary to think with the right brain; however, the left brain is by far the
ascendant and often excludes the other half from becoming actively involved
in tasks and activities. To encourage the right-hand side to come to the fore,
the following ‘trick’ can push the left brain into ‘shutting down’ for a while
to give the other half the chance to think for itself! Taking a simple line
drawing, and placing it wrong way up on a table, and then attempting to copy
it using the left hand does two things. First, the right-hand brain has to
undertake the work, since there is neither a logical nor easily remembered
way to achieve this, and also the physical action is being carried out by the
left hand, which requires the control of the right brain. Even if the drawing
is something that the left brain could copy from memory, being upside down
typically makes it all too difficult! Second, the left brain becomes quite bored
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with the fiddly work involved and, having not a lot else to do, it effectively
goes to sleep. After a few minutes the natural ability for creative thought
should noticeably improve. There are of course other ways to achieve much
the same effect, and it has been noted that the left brain goes into sleep faster
than the right, which is why some of the best ideas come just before sleep or
while daydreaming!” 20
However, you need both sides of the brain, the “whole brain,” for innovation
work.
Perhaps the best assessment tool was developed by William Miller, a
researcher and lecturer at Stanford University and the author of the book
Flash of Brilliance.21 Miller believes that everyone has the capacity to be
innovative. His approach chooses not to measure whether a person is
innovative, but instead seeks to understand or discover the unique way in
which a person is innovative. His work encompasses the following concepts:
• We are all unique individuals. Each of us has different ways of
expressing our talents, knowledge, values, and interests.
• We all have the capacity to be creative, but we express this potential
differently.
• We approach innovation and change with our own unique blend of the
four Innovation Styles. These four Innovation Styles are Visioning,
Exploring, Experimenting, and Modifying.
20 Tennant, Geoff: Design for Six Sigma: Launching New Products and Services Without
Failure, Gower Publishing Limited, Abingdon, Oxon, GBR, 2002, pp. 121 21 William. C. Miller, Flash of Brilliance, Reading, MA: Perseus, 1988
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Miller’s approach supports the philosophy that everyone is creative but that
everyone approaches creativity in different ways. By recognizing each
person’s unique talents as well as their unique Innovation Styles, we can
greatly enhance both the quality of interaction within the group and the
output of the group.
Another leading contributor to the creative-thinking field is Professor
Howard Gardner, who contributed his insightful theory of “Multiple
Intelligences.”22 Gardner recognized that there are different types of human
intelligences, including those that go beyond the traditional linguistic and
mathematical intelligences that are most commonly recognized and
rewarded. Gardner also offers the following different types of intelligences:
• Musical Intelligence (sound, rhythm, composition)
• Spatial Intelligence (visual aesthetics, drawing, painting)
• Kinesthetic Intelligence (dance, movement, building, drama)
• Intrapersonal Intelligence (research, reflection, personal projects)
• Interpersonal Intelligence (interactive expression, cooperative).
Despite traditional views, many people now realize that creative thinking in
the musical, spatial, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal areas is just
as valuable as creative thinking in the traditional linguistic and mathematical
areas.
22 Gardner H., Intelligences Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, Basic Books,
New York, 1999, pp. 41– 43
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Knowledge and creativity
A typical system of education is based on memorizing: learn, remember and
repeat. “Most of a child’s time at school is devoted to the acquisition,
retention and testing of knowledge. Children learn methods and facts and are
then tested on how well they can apply those methods and remember those
facts.“23 Since many facts about the world and processes around us are
complementing the new insights due to new information inputs on daily
basis, the knowledge acquired in school is more or less lagging behind the
actual facts.
Students in these conditions, "are fed" with a myriad of facts, a part of which
is completely useless in modern conditions, and a good portion (the newer
data) can be easily found on the Internet. The dilemma is whether it is still
enough to learn a lot of facts, given that knowledge is continually updated
and changed.
Knowledge is essential to everyone, even to the most intelligent people or
the most creative individuals. One definition of intelligence is the ability to
solve new tasks by using a combination of previously acquired knowledge
in new ways. “Intelligence is best captured at the medium ranges of novelty,
where the opportunity for people to make intelligent use of their previous
knowledge is optimal“.24 However, when a new task cannot be solved by
23 Sloane Paul: Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlocking the Creativity and Innovation in You and
Your Team, Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR, 2006, p.45 24 Kaufmann, G.: Two Kinds of Creativity – But Which Ones? Creativity and innovation
management, 2004, 13(3), p.157
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using the acquired knowledge i.e. "when the task contains so much novelty
that ‘the individual cannot find any relationship between the current situation
and past experience’, intelligence, by definition, is not applicable. In these
situations, it takes creativity or ‘a completely unique approach for their
solution. “25
“Creativity is often obvious in young children, but it may be harder to find
in older children and adults because their creative potential has been
suppressed by a society that encourages intellectual conformity“.26 There is
a widespread belief that school is ‘suppressing’ creativity: while the kids
before entering school have unlimited imagination, later on they become
more closed in expressing their fantasies. “In the process of an adolescent’s
development, at its most critical stage, there is usually a decline in school
progress, a weakening of formerly established habits, particularly when
productive work of a creative nature unfolds before the child. Adolescents
may draw less because they are more aware of objective cultural standards
and therefore more critical of their own work”.27 So, to stimulate creativity
of older children (adolescents) something has to be done.
25 Gardner, M.K. and Sternberg, R.J.: Novelty and intelligence. In Sternberg, R.J. (ed.), Mind in
Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, p.39 26 Sternberg, R. J.: The Development of Creativity as a Decision-Making Process. In Sawyer, R.
Keith: Creativity and Development, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC, USA, 2003, p.98 27 Sawyer, R. K.: Creativity and Development, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC, USA, 2003,
p.70
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Imagination and creativity
Einstein reported that he first ‘saw’ the solution to a problem without being
able to express it.28 The general definition of imagination is: “Imagination is
the ability to think of all things as possible”.29 The more comprehensive
explanation sees “imagination as an aspect of reflective thinking that enables
us to create ideas that not only go beyond what is given but are effective, in
the sense that they are likely to transform experience as intended. The things
most emphasized in imagination as it reshapes experience are things which
are absent in reality. Imagination is an essential human capacity in various
activities such as the pursuit of creativity and innovation, the symbolic
expression of ideas, and critical thinking. In other words, imagination is the
internal imagery of a creator whereas creativity and creations are the outward
manifestation of imagination”.30
Imagination may help people to push the boundaries of current knowledge,
to exceed the limitations of generally accepted definitions of reality, and to
enter an expanded scientific world and develop more elaborated scientific
theories, thereby leading to technological advancements (e.g., new products)
that surpass the inventions of the current generation.31 In this boundless,
ever-changing globalization market, in which knowledge is the niche for
28 Ritter, S. M., Baaren, R.B., & Dijksterhuis , A.: Creativity: The role of unconscious processes
in idea generation and idea selection, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 7,2012, p.21 29 Kangas, M.: Creative and playful learning: Learning through game co-creation and games in a
playful learning environment, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 5, 2010, p.2 30 Liang, C., Hsu, Y., & Chang, C.C.: Intrinsic motivation as a mediator on imaginative
capability development, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 8, 2013, p.110 31 Wang, C.C., Ho, H.C., Wu, J.J. & Cheng, Y.Y.: Development of the scientific imagination
model: A concept-mapping perspective, Thinking Skills and Creativity, 13, 2014, p.107
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competition and cooperation, creative knowledge has already become an
index that leads civilization into a continuous advance.32
The biggest innovations during the human history, made out of nothing
existing, are the result of fantasy and imagination. For instance, the laser had
no ancestor to follow or improve it, nothing similar was seen before – the
light gathered to cut the metal or stone! Without someone’s fantasy we would
not have plasma or LED TV hanged on the wall as a painting, the Internet or
an iPhone.
Imagination makes it possible to get out of the closed circle of thought (out
of the box). Imagination takes us into the future, to unimagined discoveries
that make life more beautiful, better and more interesting. But it also allows
individuals to rise above the average and generate fresh and useful ideas. In
the present context of globalization and the general competition, creativity
(creation of new and applicable ideas) and innovation (profitable
implementation of creativity) became a condition for survival. “Although
imagination is common to everyone, there are individual differences in how
individuals use imagination to generate good ideas that solve problems”.33
Albert Einstein said: “Knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces
the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly
speaking, a real factor in scientific research”.34
32 Shena, T.: Inspiring the creativity and imagination of university students during creative
curriculum by teaching design, Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 45, 2012, p.616 33 Ho, H.C., Wang, C.C., & Cheng, Y.Y.: Analysis of the Scientific Imagination Process,
Thinking Skills and Creativity, 10, 2013, p.76 34 Einstein, A: Letter to the international conference of war resisters in Lyons, France, The
Christian century, Volume 48,1931, p. 1085
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Games and creativity
In 1958 Albert Schreiber wrote an article in the Journal of the Academy of
Management about “another new teaching technique” which was said to
offer “attractive possibilities for improved learning experiences”.35 “This
new technique was the use of games”.36 In the literature, the nine-dot puzzle
problem - frame of reference37 and the Mutilated Checkerboard (MC)
problem38 are well known examples of games that require creativity to be
solved.
One of the most popular games is Lego. When testing the technical schools
in the north of France, “the use of Lego was found appealing to the students
and provided an excellent medium for teaching design, programming skills,
and creativity.”39 In other cases, which is investigating in the companies
Nokia, Daimler - Chrysler, Ikea, and Alcatel, Kimberly Jaussi concluded that
“legos work because they let executives visualize abstract concepts like
‘value chain’ or ‘process engineering’ by actually building their
interpretations of them.”40 “Different games can be used with different
teaching objectives in mind.“ Special creative games should be able to
35 Schreiber, A.: The theory and application of the management game approach to teaching
business policy, The Journal of the Academy of Management, 1(2), 1958, p.57 36 Verzat C., Byrne J. & Fayolle A.: Tangling With Spaghetti: Pedagogical Lessons from
Games, Academy of Management Learning & Education, 8(3), 2009, p.359 37 Akin, Ö., &Akin, C.: On the process of creativity in puzzles, inventions, and designs,
Automation in Construction, 7, 1998, pp.123-138 38 Kaplan, C.A., & Simon, H.A.: In search of insight, Cognitive Psychology, 22, 1990, pp.374-
419 39 Verzat C., Byrne J. & Fayolle A.: Tangling With Spaghetti: Pedagogical Lessons from
Games, Academy of Management Learning & Education, 8(3), 2009, p.360 40 Sawyer, R. K: Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, Oxford University
Press, Cary, NC, USA, 2006, p.297
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“influence creativity and imagination, stimulate original and innovative
ideas, or alter risk-perception is warranted.“41
Some authors of classical understanding suspiciously ask: How can the
puzzles improve mental agility? “Precisely because it is innocuous. Puzzles
give pleasure in much the same way that jokes do. They create suspense and
a mild anxiety, lead us astray, and surprise us with counterintuitive answers.
Puzzles stimulate the imagination in ways that logical reasoning cannot.”42
Games can create ‘imaginary worlds and hypothetical spaces where players
can test ideas and experience their consequences’.43 Play commonly signifies
a form of activity with three intrinsic features. It is separable from everyday
life (especially as against “work”; it exists within a “magic circle”), safe
(“consequence free” or non-productive), and pleasurable or “fun”
(normatively positive).44 „Play appears to be a creative process in the nature
of humor. This is supported by the fact that play and humor are constituted
by the same general mood of cheerfulness and enthusiasm and that neither
the playful or humoristic situation last beyond the moment they occur “.45
Study research in literature has shown that the introduction of games as a
teaching method is indispensable for the development of creativity and
innovation, stimulating original ideas and changing perceptions of risk – the
release of fear of failure. On one hand, a game is taken very seriously by the
players, but at the same time the players remember that ‘it is only a game’.
41 Verzat C., Byrne J. & Fayolle A.: Tangling with Spaghetti: Pedagogical Lessons from Games,
Academy of Management Learning & Education, 8(3), 2009, p.366 42 Donalee, M.: Retrain Your Business Brain: Outsmart the Corporate Competition, Dearborn
Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, Chicago, IL, USA, 2003, p.3 43 Squire, K., & Jenkins, H.: Harnessing the power of games in education, Insight (Journal from
the Institute for the Advancement of Emerging Technologies in Education). 3, 2003, p.8 44 Malaby, T. M.: Beyond Play: A New Approach to Games, Games and Culture, 2, 2007, p.96 45 Hammershøj, L. G.: Creativity in education as a question of cultivating sensuous forces,
Thinking Skills and Creativity, 13, 2014, p.176
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The game is relaxing and entertaining precisely because it relieves us from
the burden of decisions making ‘in the real world’, and allows participants
to remain creative.46
Resources for creativity
The confluence of six sources is needed for creativity, i.e. aspects of
intelligence, knowledge, thinking styles, character, personality, motivation
and environment. These resources are combined interactively to yield the
best creative performance.
Intelligence: “The intelligence is the ability to redefine problems (seeing an
old problem in a new way) and the ability to think insightfully. Three insight
skills can help redefine problem (a) selective encoding, used in recognizing
what information in a problem is key for solving the problem or for
redefining it; (b) selective combination, used to put the pieces of a puzzle
together when it is not at all obvious how they can be interlocked; and (c)
selective comparison, used to recognize the relevance of old information for
the solution of a new problem, when the relevance of this information is not
obvious.”47
46 Heifetz, A.: Games and science, Games and Economic Behavior 68, 2010, p.791 47 Sternberg R. J. and Lubart T. I.: Investing in Creativity, Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 4, No. 3,
1993, pp. 229-232
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Intellectual skills:48 Three intellectual skills are particularly important: (a)
the synthetic skill to see problems in new ways and to escape the bounds of
conventional thinking, (b) the analytic skill to recognize which of one’s ideas
are worth pursuing and which are not, and (c) the practical-contextual skill
to know how to persuade others of— to sell other people on— the value of
one’s ideas. The confluence of these three skills is also important. Analytic
skills used in the absence of the other two skills results in powerful critical
(but not creative) thinking.
Synthetic skill used in the absence of the other two skills results in new ideas
that are not subjected to the scrutiny required to improve them and make
them work. And practical-contextual skill in the absence of the other two
skills may result in societal acceptance of ideas not because the ideas are
good, but rather, because the ideas have been well and powerfully presented.
To be creative, one must first decide to generate new ideas, analyze these
ideas, and sell the ideas to others. In other words, a person may have
synthetic, analytical, or practical skills but may not apply them to problems
that potentially involve creativity. For example, one may decide to follow
other people’s ideas rather than synthesize one’s own; one may decide not to
subject one’s ideas to a careful evaluation; or one may decide to expect other
people to accept one’s ideas (and therefore decide not to try to persuade other
people of the value of these ideas). The skill is not enough: One first needs
to make the decision to use the skill.
48 Sternberg R.J.: The Development of Creativity as a Decision-Making Process in Sawyer, R.
Keith: Creativity and Development, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC, USA, 2003, pp. 94-240
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Knowledge:49 In order to make a creative contribution to a field of
knowledge, one must, of course, have knowledge of that field. Otherwise,
one risks rediscovering what is already known. Without knowledge of the
field, it is also difficult for an individual to assess the problems in the field
and to judge which are important. But knowledge can be a double-edged
sword, simply because with knowledge often comes entrenchment, or
tunnel-vision, as it is sometimes called. One can lose the ability to see things
from a new perspective. Thus, the acquisition of expertise can actually
interfere with rather than facilitate creativity if one loses the flexibility to see
problems in new ways. Everyone has a knowledge base. How each person
chooses to use it is a decision each must make.
Thinking styles:50 are the ways in which people choose to use or exploit
their intelligence as well as their knowledge. Thus, thinking styles concern
not abilities but how these abilities and the knowledge acquired through them
are used in day-to-day interactions with the environment. Creative people
are likely to be those with a legislative proclivity, that is, a preference for
thinking in new ways and a decision to think in new ways. This preference
needs to be distinguished from the ability to think creatively: Someone may
like to think along new lines but not do it well, or vice versa. A legislative
individual is someone who enjoys formulating problems and creating new
systems of rules and new ways of seeing things. Such a person is in contrast
to an individual with an executive style: someone who likes implementing
the systems, rules, and tasks of others. Both differ from an individual with a
49 Sternberg R.J.: The Development of Creativity as a Decision-Making Process in Sawyer, R.
Keith: Creativity and Development, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC, USA, 2003, pp. 94-240 50 Sternberg R. J. and Lubart T. I.: Investing in Creativity, Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 4, No. 3,
1993, pp. 229-230
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judicial style: someone who enjoys evaluating people, things, and rules.
Thus, the creative person not only has the ability to see things in new ways
but likes to do so. The creative person is also likely to have a global-not just
a local-perspective on problems. Seeing the forest despite all the trees
(recognizing which questions are important and which ones are not) is the
mark of creative endeavor.
Personality: Numerous research investigations have supported the
importance of certain personality attributes for creative functioning. These
attributes include, but are not limited to, tolerance of willingness to
overcome obstacles51, willingness to take sensible risks52 (highly creative
ideas are rarely safe, so to gain a major return, one needs to take risks),
willingness to tolerate ambiguity, and self-efficacy53 (readiness to tolerate
anxiety over non-closure on a solution long enough to reach an optimal or
near-optimal solution), willingness to grow54 (move on to still other ideas
when one idea won acceptance and reward), and belief in oneself 55 (which
is probably most important).
“Creative people often find themselves at points where no one seems to
believe in their ideas, except for themselves. If, however, they do not believe
51 Golann, S. E.: Psychological study of creativity, Psychological Bulletin, 60, 1963, pp. 548-
565 52 McClelland, D. C.: The calculated risk: An aspect of scientific performance, In C. W. Taylor
(Ed.), The 1955 University of Utah research conference on the identification of creative
scientific talent, pp. 96-110, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1956 53 Barron, F., & Harrington, D. M.: Creativity, intelligence, and personality, Annual Review of
Psychology, 32, 1981, pp. 439-476 54 McCrae, R. R.: Creativity, divergent thinking, and openness to experience. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 1987, 52, pp.1258-1265 55 Barron, F., & Harrington, D. M.: Creativity, intelligence, and personality., Annual Review of
Psychology, 32, 1981, pp 439-476
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in themselves, then almost certainly their ideas will go nowhere, because
there will be no one to push them.”56
None of the attributes of creative thinking is fixed. One can decide to
overcome obstacles, take sensible risks, and so forth.
Motivation: Intrinsic, task-focused motivation is essential to creativity.57
The research has shown the importance of such motivation for creative work
and has suggested that people rarely do truly creative work unless they really
love what they are doing and focus on the work rather than the potential
rewards. People do their best work when they do work they really love.
Motivation is not something inherent in a person: One decides to be
motivated by one thing or another. Often, people who need to work in a
certain area that does not particularly interest them will decide that, given
the need to work in that area, they had better find a way to make it interest
them. They will then look for some angle on the work they need to do that
makes this work appeal to rather than bore them.
Environment: 58Creative people need an environment that is supportive and
rewarding of creative ideas. People will be most creative if they are placed
in an environment that fosters, accepts, and actively rewards creative
ideation. Many environments, especially those of schools, do not do so. One
could have all of the internal resources needed in order to think creatively,
but without some environmental support (such as a forum for proposing
56 MacKinnon, D. W.: Personality and the realization of creative potential, American
Psychologist, 17, 1965, pp. 485-495 57 Amabile, T. M.: The social psychology of creativity, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1983 58 Lubart, T. I.: Creativity and cross-cultural variation, International Journal of Psychology,
1990, vol. 25, pp. 39-59
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those ideas), the creativity that a person has within him or her might never
be displayed. Environments typically are not fully supportive of the use of
creativity. The obstacles in a given environment may be minor (as when an
individual receives negative feedback on creative thinking) or major (as
when one’s well-being or even life is threatened if one thinks in a manner
that defies convention). The individual therefore must decide how to respond
in the face of the almost omnipresent environmental challenges. Some
people let unfavorable forces in the environment block their creative output;
others do not.
Confluence: 59 The confluence of these six components - Creativity is
hypothesized to involve more than a simple sum of a person’s level on each
component. First, there may be thresholds for some components (e.g.,
knowledge) below which creativity is not possible, regardless of the levels
on other components. Second, partial compensation may occur in which
strength on one component (e.g., motivation) counteracts a weakness on
another component (e.g., environment). Third, interactions may also occur
between components, such as intelligence and motivation, in which high
levels on both components could multiplicatively enhance creativity.
Creative ideas are both novel and valuable. But they are often rejected when
the creative innovator stands up to vested interests and defies the crowd.
59 Sternberg R.J.: The Development of Creativity as a Decision-Making Process, Oxford
University Press, Cary, NC, USA, 2003, pp. 94-98
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Imagination
Albert Einstein said, "Imagination ... is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."60
The Oxford dictionary defines imagination as “The faculty or action of
forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to
the senses.“ Another definition is “the faculty of imagining, the ability to
form new images and sensations in the mind that are not perceived through
senses such as sight, hearing, or other senses.” Without imagination many
things we are using today wouldn’t existed.
Here are several ways to burn new pathways and strengthen your
imagination:61
Use your imagination to push the boundaries of what is commonplace.
Use your imagination to do the opposite of what is expected.
Look to other areas for inspiration.
Play with ideas. Play is a critical component of strengthening the imagination
for creative thinking.
For new ideas people need some stimuli. Stimulus (plural: stimuli) is a thing
or event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an organ or tissue.
60 Viereck, George Sylvester: "What life means to Einstein: an interview", The Saturday
Evening Post, 1929 61 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, p. 43
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Another definition: stimulus is a thing that arouses activity or energy in
someone or something; a spur or incentive.
If we accept that almost 98 percent of ideas already exist in one form or
another, the answers must already exist somewhere. All one needs to do is
find them and then combine and recombine them in a unique way that makes
them work in solving a new challenge. In the “cycle of ideas,” all or at least
most ideas are reincarnated from a previous life in some other company,
agency, industry, or country.62
Enemies of creativity
If we accept the argument that all people are creative to a greater or lesser
extent, the question is what prevents them to express their creativity.
Whether it's about (a) ideas allowing that we, our families and friends
experience the great moments because of the new things that we created (e.g.
a new recipe for a cake with a new combination of fruit and chocolate) or (b)
an epochal invention that will change the life of all of humankind (such as
Internet), there are the two main obstacles that will usually prevent this to
happen. The enemies of creativity are all around us, one might think, when
most people are not experiencing creativity as an integral part of their
everyday life. Who is the greatest enemy of creativity? To get the proper
answer to that question, the easiest way is: take a mirror and look.
62 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, p.45
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The person you see in the reflection is actually the biggest enemy of
creativity – i.e. we ourselves. Why is that so? This is called self-censorship.
We do not believe that the idea that came to our mind is noteworthy because
we think that is too simple or too complicated, someone already has the same
idea elsewhere, or it’s fictional - not realistic at the moment. When this
happens, we just ignore the idea and forget about it. When, after some time,
you see your idea in the form of a new product in the supermarket or in the
commercials, appearing exactly as it occurred to you - you will recall that 2-
3 years ago you had it in your mind but have done nothing for the idea to
become a reality. And what's worse, this will not be a good lesson for most
of people to do something next time – once again most of them will do the
same: ignore and forget.
Another key point for neutralizing creativity is the fear of evaluation of other
people: if I put forward my idea, how will people will react to it: probably
they will say that the idea is stupid, ridiculous, too simple or too complicated,
unfeasible, or even great, but it is not the right moment, nobody is going to
fund it, things like that already exist, should not be exposed to be found
ridicules or it is best to wait and think over. A million reasons to keep the
idea and exposed it to nobody, to prevent getting such opinion and a final
conclusion - it is the best to forget everything. Fear of other people’s
estimates paralyzes us and in the absence of self-confidence it usually ends
with the withdrawal before the ‘battle’ began; and the withdrawal means
only one thing: a guaranteed failure. As playing the lottery: if you do not buy
a ticket, considering that there is no chance of winning, you will never get a
reward, but if you believe that there is even the slightest chance and you're
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ready to play regardless of the outcome, the gain is, regardless of the low
probability, still possible and achievable. Brave people play because: no risk
no gain. Those who are afraid to even try certainly will not get a reward,
because they excluded themselves from the game.
Barriers to creative thinking
Basic human nature is to be curious, to try new things, and to learn by
discovering new connections. But somehow, on the way, this natural creative
talent becomes blocked.
Through self-judgment and by influence by others, people cease to look for
new ideas, new approaches and cease to discover new connections. Over
time, their creative "muscles" weaken and in some cases may be even
"atrophied" to the point that, at the invitation, creative muscles are so weak
that they are unable to jump into action.
When observes the creativity in corporations, Dundon defines three common
barriers to creative thinking:63
Obstacle 1: The fear of making new things
“We tried that a few years ago and it didn’t work.”
“We’ve never tried that so it won’t work.”
“We’ve always done it this way.”
“We don’t want any mistakes so do it the way it’s always been done.”
63 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, pp. 22-26
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Dilemma: why is it that people try many new experiences in their younger
years but somehow, once they are a bit older, the number of new adventures
they are willing to experience starts to dwindle? The fear of making a mistake
and the fear of what others may think can lock a person in their own creative
thinking prison. Children try new things, but many adults only try new things
if they think they can do them right.
Everyone is naturally full of creativity but as Stanford Professor Michael Ray
says, our “voice of judgment” takes over.64 “You can’t do that. That will
never work. You’ll fail. It won’t be good enough. That’s the dumbest idea
I’ve ever heard.”
The voice of judgment creates fear and destroys confidence in people’s
creative talents and in their abilities to excel. They stop dreaming of what
could be and see only what reality is today. These insecurities hold them
back from asking new questions and taking action. What is really stopping
people from being creative is not a lack of new ideas but their voice of
judgment.
Creative thinkers try new things and move with the changing world. Albert
Einstein determined that energy is a function of mass and velocity (E=MC2),
so in order to develop new creative energy, mass must be moved in some
new direction! People need to move out of their comfort zones, open
64 Goleman, D., Kaufman, P. and Ray, M.: The Creative Spirit, New York, Penguin, 1992,
p.129
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themselves up to new experiences and let more creativity flow into their
lives.
Obstacle 2: The proper way
Many people have a tendency to stop looking for alternative right answers
after the first answer has been found.65 Stopping at the first “right” answer
prevents further exploration of possible solutions. If this pattern of stopping
at the first answer is repeated, the repertoire of answers soon declines and
the ability to forge new pathways or thinking patterns in the brain is
damaged. One right answer, results in little room to move and too few
degrees of creative freedom. As Roger Von Oech quotes Emilé Chartier,
“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have.”66
Strong innovation leadership is about encouraging people to look for new
ways, to work outside the parameters of what’s been done before to seek out
new possibilities. Instead of criticizing ideas, people need to ask themselves
if the idea is wrong or if the idea is just different from what they are used to.
If the Wright Brothers hadn’t been encouraged to go beyond the
conventional wisdom that declared “humans can’t fly,” we might not be
flying in jet aircraft today.
65 Oech, V. R.: A Whack on the Side of the Head, New York: Warner Books, 1998, p.36 66 Oech, V. R.: A Whack on the Side of the Head, New York: Warner Books, 1998, p.30
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Obstacle 3: Order and control
The world is naturally chaotic because it is alive – it is a complex, living
system that is constantly reshaping itself. Organizations attempt to achieve
stability in the midst of this chaotic change and spend their time and effort
pursuing efficiency by perfecting current processes and approaches.
Unfortunately, by the time they have perfected the process, the world has
already changed and the revamped processes are already out of date.
Doing things better: a better strategy might be to dedicate the team’s energy
and skill toward finding new and more effective processes as well as building
the creative-thinking skills that will be needed for coping with future
challenges. While some organizations are spending their time pursuing a
strategy of doing things better, others are spending their time pursuing the
strategy of doing things differently.
Creative thinking rarely emerges from organizations where order and control
are valued. Organizations that are trying to control too much of their internal
environment will miss out on the creative energy of their employees. The
overwhelming need for control leads to less exploration, less
experimentation, and, in general, less creative thinking.
Stick to the known: Noncreative thinkers are typically unwilling to let go of
their opinions. They attempt to control others’ viewpoints and behaviors,
either overtly or passively. They do not invite others to participate in their
innovative thinking exercises. “You’re new here so you probably shouldn’t
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be involved.” “You’re not in our department so we don’t need your input.”
They effectively shut off the oxygen flow to their creative vessels!
One of the reasons people shut down creativity is because they know that,
once they have identified new ideas or new ways of doing things, they might
actually have to accept and implement them. This means that they might
have to change their current position. They might actually have to try new
things. They might actually have to let go of “the right way” and release their
grip on order and control.
As Peter Drucker once said, “If you want to do something new, you have to
stop doing something old.”67 Old thinking may be covering up true creative
potential. Old thinking has to be removed in order to make room for new
thinking.
Accepting failure: Some of the “rules” and “ways of doing things” will have
to unlearn in order to make way for new ideas. Creative thinking also
involves failure. A person should not stop trying just because perfect results
are not produced on the first attempt.
67 Drucker F. Peter: The Discipline of Innovation, Harvard Business Review, Reprint 98604
November– December 1998, p.6
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Curiosity as a condition of creativity
Oxford Dictionaries defines curiosity as “a strong desire to know or learn
something.” Also, synonymous of curiosity are: inquisitiveness, interest,
spirit of enquiry.
Without curiosity, many different areas wouldn’t be discovered, many of the
ideas would not be generated and many discoveries that we know today
would not have seen the light of day. If Columbo wasn’t curious a way to a
new continent might never have been discovered.
Dundon68 argues that the primary basis for creativity is a curious mind. Being
curious involves (a) having an open mind, (b) gaining a broader perspective,
and (c) asking probing questions.
It is difficult to discover innovative solutions with a closed mind. In order to
see new ideas, we must first acknowledge that alternative ideas can exist.
Being open-minded means being willing to change perceptions or “mental
models” when new information surfaces.
Often, progress is blocked by our sacred traditions: our opinions,
assumptions, or rules of “the way it’s done.” While some sacred traditions
may be valuable to maintain, others may be hindering the innovation process
by preventing new ideas from surfacing. Open your mind by challenging
your sacred traditions.
68 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, pp. 29
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Good innovation leader creates an environment where the sacred tradition
can be changed. It seems that the more a person perceives himself to be an
expert in a certain field, the more resistant he is to listening to alternative
ideas. Whatever the idea, if it does not fit with their chosen solution, it is
instantly dismissed.
Peter Senge reported that, on average, it takes two years of interaction for us
to recognize how, and appreciate what people outside our field of expertise
contribute to the team’s objective. Without this recognition and appreciation,
we may not be providing others with the information they need when they
need it. We also might view them as spoilers when they express opinions or
concerns that differ from ours.69
Self-consciousness
There is an interesting story about the boiled frogs: “If you put a frog in
boiling water, it will jump out; but if you put it in cold water and gradually
turn up the heat, it will let itself be slowly boiled to death because it is not
aware of its surroundings and therefore doesn’t perceive any immediate
danger.”70
69 Senge, P.: The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, New
York, Doubleday, 1994 70 Senge, P.: The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, New
York, Doubleday, 1994, p.22
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Dundon in her book, “Seeds of Innovation”71 states that we can benefit from
greater awareness of ourselves and our surroundings, which should enable
us to take advantage of more opportunities for innovation.
To be a great innovation leader, you must first be aware of yourself. In order
to gain this greater awareness of self, begin with these three easy steps: (1)
slow down your mind, (2) calm your mind, and (3) clear your mind.
Recognition of our own fears
Most of our barriers to innovative thought and action are self-imposed.
Remember the story “The little prince” (from a book “for children written
for grown-ups”, as author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry believed) about the
elephant that, at a young age, was confined to a certain spot by a very strong
chain. He learned to move only a few feet in any direction. Even though the
elephant grew to a very large size with corresponding strength, and even
though he could easily have pulled the chain from its roots in the ground, he
did not. Instead, he still moved only a few feet in any direction. He had
learned at an early age not to test the strength of the chain and simply stopped
trying. His ability to find new solutions was limited by his fears.
Dundon72 clarifies the following common fears:
71 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, pp. 130-131 72 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, pp. 131-132
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1. Fear of the unknown. Like the elephant, we stop trying new things.
However, innovative thinking is about venturing into the unknown. Every
time you do something you haven’t done before— riding a bike, transferring
to a new school, enrolling in a university, starting a new job, getting
married— you are building the ability to conquer your fear of the unknown.
Remember that, in order to swim, you must let go of the side of the pool!
Even in a simple situation, people have fear of unknown city, unknown car,
unknown cellular… trying to avoid being fool, so instead they rather stick to
known things. Accepting a challenge may be an exciting new experience,
once people are ready to try new things.
2. Fear of losing what I have. People want to retain control. They have
struggled hard to achieve their goals— status, power, and money. Why
should they share them with anyone else? “If I share my idea with others,
might they try to take credit for it?” “If it took me fifty years to get a seat at
the boardroom table, why should I invite others with less invested to share
in the decision-making?” However, a wise person once said, “You have to
go down the mountain in order to climb the next mountain.” Sometimes
giving away or sharing what we have achieved makes room for future
achievements, both ours and others.
Some people keep their knowledge and experience locked in the safe deposit
or in their head. But without updating, by some time that becomes out of date
and without fresh blood transfusion it can die. Mixing own ideas with others,
provoking and trigging new insights, can be a winning new combination.
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3. Fear of what others might think. Many people hide their new ideas for
fear that others might judge them too harshly and potentially reject them
from the group. Insecurities prevent people from asking questions and
offering new insights. This might be due partially to a cultural upbringing in
which some people were taught to suppress their ideas if they did not mirror
those of parents, teachers, or managers. However, it is important to recognize
that in the field of innovative thinking, having a different idea can be very
valuable for the group, and may even represent the breakthrough the group
has been looking for.
Some people are expecting that their ideas may seem too bold or too daring
so they are rather willing to avoid laughing and rejection by others and keep
quiet at the creative workshop, so potentially good ideas dies before even
spoken. Taking a risk and speaking out loud your own ideas is not a mortal
sin and everybody can survive it, with more self-esteem.
4. Fear of what you might think. We all have what Michael Ray referred
to as “the Voice of Judgment.” Before our ideas even have a chance to see
the light of day or to be reviewed by others, we allow our ego to extinguish
them. However, for innovative thinking, we need to tap into and trust our
own judgment, both our cognitive judgment and our intuition. Intuition is
trusting in those things we cannot see but that we somehow “know” we hold
true. Many people overrule their “gut feeling” or intuition because they
cannot explain or quantify it. Yet, as we know, not all things in life can be
explained or quantified.
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This is a rigid example of auto-censorship: people switch-off their ideas
without anybody even hearing them, because of self-confidence absence.
Once the idea is born as a spark, it soon dies if not recorded and exposed.
Trust in your-self is a good way to overcome that irrational fear.
Advice: Overcome these four fears and push the boundaries of your self-
awareness. Deepen your understanding of what is happening around you and
why it is happening.
Passion – a key driver of creativity73
The Oxford Dictionaries define passion as “strong and barely controllable
emotion” or “an intense desire or enthusiasm for something”. To show your
passion for something, therefore, requires you to display your enthusiasm
from within. When you put your heart and soul into what you are doing, you
are tapping into your strong emotional force or, in other words, your
passionate self! The more you tap into this emotional force, the more you are
filled with positive energy.
Passion is the intensity that we feel when we are involved in an activity or
project that interests us deeply. This is the life energy that we receive and the
support to do what we love! There are people who are extremely passionate
about their work and their lives, which radiate positive energy and
73 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, pp. 144-158
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excitement wherever they go. It is not just the kind of work that these people
are doing that is exciting; it is their attitude toward their work. Giorgio
Armani (fashion designer), Jack Nicholson (Actor) or Oprah Winfrey (talk
show leader and philanthropist) – they all put their heart and soul into their
expression of the human spirit and potential through their work. If you are
open to it, their passion can be contagious. Passion is to connect creativity
with a deeper purpose. Even when faced with difficult situations, passionate
people somehow find a deeper meaning to guide them.
A passion is a key driver for creativity. If one does any activity with a strong
innate passion and interest, he/she will enjoy doing it in its own way and
making it even better.
To kill someone’s enthusiasm, people using some of the following
expressions:
It’s a bad idea. That’s a stupid idea. It’s too hard to implement. Think it over.
It’s too radical a change. We’re not ready for that idea yet. That’s not your
job. We won’t get the budget for it. The president will never approve it. If
it’s such a great idea, why hasn’t anyone thought of it before? It’s all right in
theory, but it would never work here. It’s not a priority. We haven’t done
that before. Let’s wait.
What happens if we listen to all those criticisms? We end up back where we
started. When someone hears these passion killers’ phrases or even anticipate
of hearing them, we may expect nothing but choking innovation spirit.
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To make the innovation grow, new ideas must be supported. In an
environment with passionate people, one can get support for their ideas that
they need. Examples of supporters to encourage the new ideas:
Bravo. It’s a great idea. I stand behind you. I wish I’d thought of that. I knew
you could do that. I’m glad you’re on my team. The President will love this
idea. Let’s do it.
If you want others to believe in your idea, you need to be passionate about it
yourself. Innovation is about challenging the status quo to find a distinctly
new and better way. It is about the courage to stand alone for a while until
others catch up. For this you need passion and patience! How did Alexander
Graham Bell feel when he invented the telephone and people criticized his
idea? People in his day thought he was crazy when he explained the ability
to hear voices through a wire. If only his doubters could see the world today:
How the telephone has progressed from the rotary dial phone to call waiting,
call forwarding, call blocking, voice mail, conference calls, and e-mail!74
74 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, p. 170
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Fostering creativity
Creativity exists not only where it creates great historical works, but also
everywhere human imagination combines, changes, and creates anything
new.75
Imagination is a transforming, creative activity directed from the concrete
toward a new concrete . . . with the help of abstraction. 76
The development of the creative imagination, then, is based on what is
usually considered creative activity: pretend play, fantasy, and the making
of creative products. In accordance with Vygotsky’s developmental and
dialectic perspective, he viewed creativity not as a trait nor a genetically
determined stable property limited to special people. In fact, he never studied
“creative people” in the sense of people who had made a transformative
contribution to art, science, or invention. Rather, he viewed creativity as a
growing, positive capability of all healthily functioning individuals.
Similarly, Feldman77 argues that creativity is a "transformational imperative"
in everyone. Creativity transforms both the creator, through the personal
experience of the process, and others, through the impact of new knowledge
and innovative artifacts disseminated through culture.78
75 Vygotsky, L. S.: Imagination and creativity in childhood, Soviet psychology, 28 (10), 1998,
pp. 84– 96 76 Vygotsky, L. S.: Imagination and creativity in the adolescent. In R. W. Rieber (Ed.), The
collected works of L. S. Vygotsky (Vol. 5, M. J. Hall, Trans., pp. 151– 166), Plenum Press,
New York, 1998 77 Feldman, D: Beyond the universals of cognitive development (2nd ed.), Norwood, NJ, Ablex,
1994 78 Sawyer, R. Keith: Creativity and Development, Oxford University Press, Cary, NC, USA,
2003, p.72
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Professor Reuven Feuerstein of the Hadassah-WIZO-Canada Research
Institute in Jerusalem has devoted his scientific work to research the learning
process. Dr. Feuerstein's work, after many disputes about his thesis, was a
great disclosure. He designed the LPAD - Learning Potential Assessment
Device79 - a device for assessing the potential for learning, in order to test
his theory that people can learn most effectively through deliberate and
explicit intervention of other people. He called this process "mediation". For
example, the mediator facilitates student’s learning by introducing him or
her to new ways of perceiving information, determining goals, and
distinguishing relevant from irrelevant details. The student learns to think
strategically. Professor Feuerstein has developed the concept of brain
plasticity — the notion that our cognitive abilities are not fixed but can be
expanded. Better yet, he had developed a program — Instrumental
Enrichment — that was designed to maximize an individual’s potential. By
using this program for children, remarkable, positive changes in their work
have been observed. Feuerstein’s success with adolescents whom traditional
educators had written off as unteachable confirmed the hypothesis that
nothing is unlearnable to learn under the right set of circumstances. Using
Feuerstein's experience in Mediated Learning Experience as a template,
Donalee Markus80 developed the intelligence-building puzzles for adults.
Neuroscience and Dr. Marian Diamond within the last 20 years, have
provided substantial evidence for questioning the old fixed intelligence
79 Feuerstein, R., Rand, Y., Jensen, M.R., Kaniel, S. and Tzuriel, D.: Prerequisites for
assessment of learning potential: the LPAD model, in C.S. Lidz (ed.) Dynamic Assessment,
Guilford, New York, 1987, pp 35-51 80 Donalee Markus: Retrain Your Business Brain: Outsmart the Corporate Competition,
Dearborn Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, Chicago, IL, USA, 2003
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theory.81 The discoveries that brain cells can and do reproduce and that
learning alters brain structure have given us a number of teachable
intelligence gurus, including Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg, Edward De
Bono, and David Perkins. It should be understood that though our brains are
fixed in certain ways, they are also capable of change. Puzzles stimulate the
brain and open neural pathways: the more pathways we have, the more
options we possess to find solutions or pursue opportunities. By exercising
different parts of your brain, you can strengthen neural pathways and create
new behavioral options. In other words, you can open your mind as well as
the minds of others both literally and figuratively.
By using puzzles one can strengthen their cognitive weaknesses. If you look
at people in your group, disadvantages of each person can be observed.
While one person may overlook important details, the other can fail to grasp
the big picture. As a result, they are less effective than they could be. The
puzzles will help everyone learn to process information in different ways,
enabling them to develop skills in an area that has always been the Achilles'
heel. The theory that intelligence can be learned has its critics. Some
prominent psychologists support the century-old assumption that
intelligence is genetically fixed and learning in one context may not be
transferred or applied to another disciplines or activities. They vigorously
oppose to any attempt of introducing the concept of "teaching intelligence."
This observation is reinforced by the basic theory of standardized
intelligence tests, which suggest that you are what you have achieved in the
test and there is nothing you can do about it. Feuerstein, however, claimed
81 Odom, William E.: Fixing Intelligence: for a More Secure America, Yale University Press,
New Haven, CT, USA, 2003
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that, at best, IQ tests represent a snapshot of what the individual has already
intellectually accomplished. What these tests cannot do is predict a person's
potential to adopt new learning. Over the years, thousands of people were
reinforced through the puzzle stimulation - to use their potential for new
learning. Puzzles enabled them to strengthen critical thinking skills and keep
their mental agility in perfect condition.82
Efficiency and effectiveness
To a large extent, the fear of failure comes from an educational system that
emphasized efficiency over effectiveness. We were taught that getting the
right answer was far more important than knowing why it was right. If we
don’t know why an answer is right, we cannot use the knowledge effectively.
We cannot use it to get the results we want. Many smart people can operate
at such a high level of efficiency that they sometimes lose track of what they
really want to accomplish. They don’t get the results they want because they
don’t know how to be effective.83 In this respect, we should distinguish
between efficiency and effectiveness. If we’re running around like crazy
getting a lot done, we may be very efficient but not particularly effective.
In The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker defined efficiency as “getting
things done right” and effectiveness as “getting the right things done.”
82 Donalee Markus: Retrain Your Business Brain: Outsmart the Corporate Competition,
Dearborn Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, Chicago, IL, USA, 2003, p. XVII 83 Donalee Markus: Retrain Your Business Brain: Outsmart the Corporate Competition,
Dearborn Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, Chicago, IL, USA, 2003, p. XVIII
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Because time is limited, it makes more sense to do the “right things” than to
simply do “things right.”84
Stimulation of group creativity
There are many methods and techniques to stimulate creative thinking, some
of them that are mentioned in literature, are as follows:
Visual thinker. Something happens when you get away from the linear
process of listing things and start sketching or drawing. The subconscious
mind is taking a leading role and somehow, new connections are beginning
to emerge. This happens because many people are visual learners.
Mindmapping. The technique of mindmapping, created by Tony Buzan, is
another visual technique of creative connectivity. Mindmapping technique
starts with a key issue or challenge in the center of the page, and then rapid
creation of large branches around the key issue that represent ideas that relate
to this issue. It is important to branch freely and rapidly expanding, so you
need to make as many connections as quickly as possible. Do not be afraid
to be messy. Mindmapping is a valuable tool for showing relationships
between the elements, showing multiple perspectives and the breadth and
depth of complex issues.
84 Donalee Markus: Retrain Your Business Brain: Outsmart the Corporate Competition,
Dearborn Trade, A Kaplan Professional Company, Chicago, IL, USA, 2003, p. 1
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Brainstorming. Alex Osborne, executive director at an advertising agency,
created brainstorming in 1938 as a group method for generating ideas. It
became one of the most popular methods used by groups around the world
to take advantage of the insights and perspectives of different stakeholders
and their experiences in order to generate many alternative ideas. In
designing a brainstorming session as the process Osborne was influenced by
the knowledge that creativity can be enhanced by prohibiting evaluation in
the idea generation phase. If participants offer their ideas quickly, there is no
time to evaluate or to discuss ideas. Accordingly, Osborne has developed
four guidelines for brainstorming: 1) defer judgment, 2) strive for quantity,
3) seek unusual ideas, and 4) combine or build on others’ ideas.85
In order to encourage the wealth of bold ideas, it is necessary that no one is
critical, negative or judgmental about the ideas. Any idea that is spoken - no
matter how stupid - must be written down. The rule of suspending judgment
at the stage of generating ideas is so important that it must be implemented
rigorously. A good technique is to give participants water pistols and who is
critical gets sprayed.
Basic rule is: the more ideas the better. Crazy thoughts that are totally
dysfunctional are often springboards for other ideas that can be adapted into
great new solutions. So, to continue a steady influx of crazy ideas - you have
to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince!86
85 A. Osborn: Applied Imagination: The Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking,
Scribner’s, New York, 1953 86 Sloane, Paul: Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlocking the Creativity and Innovation in You and
Your Team, Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR, 2006, p.146
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Sinectics87 is the elaboration of a brainstorming session that focuses on the
use of analogies as a catalyst for creativity. Sinectics teaches groups to use
three kinds of analogies: a direct analogy that compares the parallel facts;
personal analogy that requires people to think as an animal or a thing;
compressed conflicts that are contradictory terms, such as "joyful pain."
The most detailed development of brainstorming method is Creative
Problem Solving (CPS), developed by the International Center for Studies
in Creativity, a group founded by Alex F. Osborn in the 1950.
Brainwriting.88 In this process of generating ideas, participants write down
a few ideas on different pieces of paper, and then share papers, adding new
ideas based on the list of ideas that are already on paper. Unlike in
brainstorming, in a brainwriting session there is no conversation. Participants
can write down new ideas or modify the ideas already written on paper.
Papers can be circulated through the group as often and as long as people
want it to. Brainstorming rules also apply to brainwriting.
When people start to laugh or to be surprised by what they see on paper, it is
likely that they begin to dig below the ordinary meaning to finding creative
responses. Brainwriting produces a higher percentage of direct responses.
Since the spontaneous group interaction is difficult in this silent technique,
there is less pressure for group members to shoot the ideas beyond the
original problem. Even allowing the exchange of ideas, this technique is not
87 Sawyer R. Keith: Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation, Oxford
University Press, Cary, NC, USA, 2006, p.298 88 Gryskiewicz, Stanley S. Taylor, Sylvester: Making Creativity Practical: Innovation That Gets
Results, Center for Creative Leadership, Greensboro, NC, USA, 2007, pp.20-26
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as free form as some other techniques. Limiting people to write the answers
sometimes restricts their willingness to fully express their ideas. It can
generate more restrained style of creativity that moves along a path at the
incremental end of the problem-solving range.
This technique has the advantage of not requiring that the people attend the
meeting in person. It is conducted via e-mail, although it is necessary to be
moderated to keep members of the group on task together. One way to
manage this type of electronic processes is that each participant sends a
response to moderator, who takes care to send the idea to next person in the
group. Besides e-mail, specialized software programs can help in this kind
of group collaboration.
Great ideas criteria89
In order to turn creative ideas into strategic one, idea must solve a real
problem, and idea must be between innovation tripods. In addition to these
requirements, there are the following six Big Picture criteria:
1. The idea must be simple.
2. The idea must be "distinctly new and better."
3. The idea has to be proven.
4. The idea must be quickly and easily implementable.
5. The idea has to be profitable.
6. The idea must support the overall business strategy.
89 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, pp.78-84
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The great idea must be simple
Great idea is simple and easy to understand. The more complicated the idea,
the more difficult it is for others to understand how great it is. Unfortunately,
being simple is not always so simple. Some people mistakenly believe that
if the idea is simple, it is not worth the effort. In this sense, the idea should
be simplified and the details ignored until the essence of the idea is not
understood and discussed. If the idea cannot be explained in a simple way, it
cannot be expected that the manager in charge or the client understand what
is offered?
The idea must be "extremely new and better"
Innovation is the introduction of something distinctly newer and better in the
market or in the company and succeeding in attracting customers to move
from what is currently used on a new idea. Bearing in mind the glut of
products and services, it is necessary to differentiate your offer from others.
Many new products and services fail because they are not unique and
therefore are not required.
Why should someone choose exactly your idea, or what is it that makes your
idea distinctly new and better than the other options that are available? If you
cannot answer the last question, how can you expect other people to
understand what makes your idea better?
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The idea has to be proven
Many ideas have failed in the market, not because they were not "extremely
new and better", but because the company failed to provide evidence of their
claims.
It is necessary to prove that simple and great idea is "extremely new and
better" than what is already available.
The idea has to be quick and easy to implement
Resources are limited. People are busy. As a result, despite the search for
innovative ideas, they really want as little as possible disruption and changes
in the existing system. You need to show how easy the implementation of
new ideas can be. To show how the idea can get along with the basic
competencies (knowledge and skills) and the current processes of the
company. It must be pointed out what needs to change in order to implement
new ideas.
The idea has to be profitable
"The idea can be a great idea, but is it enough to cover the investment costs?
How the company will make money on this idea? How much the revenue
could grow? The idea should bring more revenues, new customers, regional
expansion.
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The idea must support the entire business strategy
The idea must be compatible with current and future needs of the clients. It
must be explained how the idea can help to achieve the overall business
strategy.
Creativity and innovation
While creativity is defined as the ability to create something new or the act
of introducing something new, the object that is being introduced as a
novelty is called innovation. Creativity must be viewed as a means to an end
and not an end in itself. The end is innovation – the realization of an idea. A
person that is creative is not necessarily innovative. Creativity is the ability
or talent to create. It's about creating ideas. Innovation is the application of
the ideas. Innovation means taking a creative idea and make it real, to
implement it in practice. Innovation is not just launching new products. It
also includes the implementation of new business processes, new ways to do
things, radical alliances, new routes to market and business strategy.
Creativity must serve as a funnel into the innovation process. Innovation
means taking the most promising ideas and testing them for real. Not all will
succeed; many will fail. Despite some failures along the way, the people in
a truly innovative organization are always looking for new and
entrepreneurial ways of achieving their goals.90
90 Sloane Paul: Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlocking the Creativity and Innovation in You and
Your Team, Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR, 2006, pp. 6-7
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Innovation can be directed to (a) small, internally-focused improvements in
productivity, (b) incremental changes in the market, or (c) a radically new
changes in the market. In other words, they may be efficiency, evolutionary
or revolutionary innovation.91
Efficiency innovation - focuses on identifying new ideas to improve what
already exists. This approach requires minimal investment. These
innovations represent small improvements and adjustments of products,
services, programs or processes. Strategy of efficiency innovation is usually
to cut costs, reduce cycle time, improve quality, resist moves by competitors
or attract new customers. Usually the results are limited.
(+) Efficiency innovation is the optimal route in some cases. For example,
cost reduction can create a competitive advantage that protects a company
from the competition and provide sufficient funds for investment in future
innovative ideas.
(-) In other circumstances, however, efficiency innovation is not the optimal
path. These initiatives can have a negative impact on customers and
employees. The launching more variants of a product can lead to inefficiency
in business, confusion among customers and ineffective allocation of
resources.
91 Dundon, Elaine: Seeds of Innovation: Cultivating the Synergy That Fosters New Ideas,
AMACOM Books, Saranac Lake, NY, USA, 2002, pp.9-11
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While efficiency innovation focuses on identifying ideas to improve what
already exists, evolutionary innovation focuses on identifying ideas that
represent something "distinctly new and better." Instead of duplicating what
already exists, the task is to find new ways that provide new value to the
company and customers. An example of evolutionary innovation is the
introduction of ATMs that have changed the way banks serve their clients'
needs and moved away banking habits from fixed working hours to the
banking at any time of day or night.
Efficiency innovation and evolutionary innovation act within the existing
structure of the company and the market, while the revolutionary
innovations focuses on radically new and better ideas that can disassemble
the existing structure of the company and the market. For example,
McDonald's fast-food approach has changed the classic restaurant business.
MP3 technology have shaken the music industry. Bluetooth changed
industry in the sector of mobile phone technology, and the Internet has
changed and will continue to change all industry sectors.
In reality, only a small number of companies and only a small number of
individuals actually are engaged in revolutionary inventions.
Groundbreaking innovations, among other advantages, sometimes may be
too radical. If the market or the companies are not ready for revolutionary
ideas, there will be enormous resistance to change that can sabotage the
acceptance of new ideas. Simply possessing a revolutionary ideas or
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strategies, does not, to any extent, guarantee success with the human side of
innovation!
The revolutionary innovation92 is that which "generally breaks paradigms,
is based on new product designs, and is generally incompatible with existing
dominant products."93 In contrast, incremental (adding) innovation "has been
defined as refinement of an established design in a way that yields price or
performance improvements." Clayton Christensen, (in his book “The
Innovator's Dilemma”, 1997), introduced the concept of disruptive
innovations. Disruptive innovation is the innovation that reconfigures the
market by undermining the dominant players from below. Aiming for
consumers who can't afford or don't need the latest and greatest technology,
the disruptive innovator succeeds by providing just what consumers want
and no more. Instead of competing on the basis of new features or
revolutionary technology, the disruptive innovator changes the terms of the
competition, offering what Christensen calls "over served" consumers
benefits they want—smaller size, greater case of use, lower price point. If
breakthrough innovation is the best of the best, the disruptive innovation is
the embodiment of "good enough".
92 Hagel John: Changing the Game - Understanding Breakthrough Innovation, Research
Technology Management, Nov/Dec 2010, Vol. 53 Issue 6, pp.67-69 93 Narayanan V.K. and Colarelli O'Connor G.: Encyclopedia of Technology and Innovation
Management, 2010
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Functional Innovation (innovation of use). This innovation involves the
degree to which a product improves or modifies its usage, perhaps adding
new functions, as compared to products already on the market. Thus, it
deals with the way people interact with a product.
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Part 2: Fostering Creativity
The GAME model
The most critical stage in the development of new products is a new-ideas-
generating phase. The lack of good, fresh and original ideas cannot be
replaced later by even the best methods of selection, evaluation,
development, testing and implementation. Companies use different methods
to gather new ideas, using many techniques of stimulation. Realizing that all
the methods and techniques have, in addition to good features, some
weaknesses that limit their effective use, we developed a new GAME model
and a new Doris tool, that could be universally and globally applied,
regardless of the location, occupation, types of work, or the demographic or
cultural characteristics of the users. The starting position is that all people
are (more or less) creative but creativity is hidden to the inner being of each
individual and requires an appropriate mechanism to express and realize it.
The subject of the theoretical and experimental study was to assess the nature
of the creativity and connection mechanisms to increase the ability to
generate new ideas of participants. The aim of the study was to structure the
model that should improve, accelerate the development of innovative
products. Applying the obtained model it was necessary to create tools for
fostering creativity of individuals and companies, whose market survival
depends on new and innovative products.
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The role of games to creativity
“Creativity also consists of another important element: perception.
Perception helps us to develop a view of the world. This picture or paradigm
explains the world to us and helps us predict and anticipate behavior.
However, when a person views the world from one paradigm, it can be very
difficult to imagine it from another. “94
“A paradigm in a sense tells you that there is a game, what the game is, and
how to play it successfully. The idea of a game is a very appropriate
metaphor for paradigms because it reflects the need for borders and
directions on how to perform correctly. A paradigm tells you how to play the
game according to the rules.”95
Creativity is similar to assembling puzzle: ‘there are so many pieces that
need to come together, and most of them are unknown.’ To create something
new, ‘you may need to approach the world provisionally, starting from a few
things (you think) you know and building on them, ploughing forward with
the faith that you will find confirming or disconfirming evidence on which
to build. It takes more patience, more iteration, and more frustration than
many people are willing to embrace.”96
94 McFadzean, Elspeth: Critical factors for enhancing creativity, Strategic Change, 2001,Vol. 10,
pp. 267–283 95 Barker J.A.: Future Edge. William Morrow & Co: New York, 1992, p.137 96 Euchner, James A.: Innovation puzzles, Research-Technology Management, January—
February 2011
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Games have been present in society since forever, but today have become an
important social trend. Their popularity is based on the fact that players, even
those who take the game very seriously (trying to achieve a better result),
feel that this is just a game that does not have serious consequences, and even
if the player loses – there is no harm, and they can immediately rematch.
Games have a long-running, deep, and habitual association with ‘play’ itself
a shallowly examined term, historically and culturally specific to Western
modernity. Play, as it is used in both game scholarship and often more
widely, commonly signifies a form of activity with three intrinsic features.
It is separable from everyday life (especially as against “work”; it exists
within a “magic circle”), safe (“consequence free” or non-productive), and
pleasurable or “fun” (normatively positive).97
Motivation is another important factor in creativity. “People have been found
to do their best work when they do work they really love.”98 If we start from
the premise that, in order to encourage creativity, it is necessary to first
arouse the interest, and to do that games are the best recipe. If the game has
more attributes that match the ARCS motivational model, which is based on
a synthesis of existing research on psychological motivation, (‘ARCS model
is based on four basic categories that apply to the design of learning activities
and is the sum of four concepts: Attention, Relevance, Confidence/
Challenge, and Satisfaction/ Success‘– Keller99) it is more likely to stimulate
97 Malaby, Thomas M. (2007) Beyond Play: A New Approach to Games, Games and Culture,
2007, 2, pp. 95–113 98 Sternberg R.J. and Lubart T. I.: Investing in Creativity, Psychological Inquiry,1993, Vol. 4,
No. 3 99 Keller, J. M.: Motivational design of instruction. In C. M. Reigeluth (Ed.), Instructional
design theories and models: An overview of their current status, Lawrence Erlbaum, New York,
USA,1983
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creativity of the players. In this regard puzzles are one of the best tools for
stimulating creativity.
As already mentioned, the game is always taken very seriously, with an
determination to win, but at the same time, players know that it is just a game
that frees us from the burden of making decisions in the "real world" and
allows participants to be and stay creative.
Having in mind these facts, our proposal for the people who want to show
their creativity is: let’s give them a proper tool for their pleasant journey,
which has to be Globally accepted, allows all participants to make their own
Authentical creations, helps them to relieve from stress by Medical features
of the tool and finally, gives them great Entertainment. In short, give them
the tool based on the GAME model.
Driven by this goal, we propose a new approach and a new model of
creativity: the GAME model. The GAME is an acronym of four interrelated
elements: Globalization, Authenticity, Medicalization and Edutainment. In
short, the GAME model emphasizes the necessity of respecting the criteria
that create basic preconditions for the creation of tools to facilitate and
accelerate the process of generating new ideas necessary for survival and
development of companies in the modern business environment: a globally
acceptable, authentic, with the medical effects, as well as the educational
effects that are entertaining and entertainment that educates.
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The modules of the GAME model are:
G - Globalization i.e. coverage of the world market (the Globe). The product
that in the same form can cover the global market, without the necessity of
adapting to the local characteristics of partial markets or countries;
A - Authenticity: originality, uniqueness, singularity. In addition to the
originality of the design that should be significantly improved in comparison
to existing products, it should allow any user to create their own, authentic
solution, without recurrence compared to its previous or creative solutions
of other users;
M - Medicalization: treatment of the social or mental problems. A product
should have a curative effect / impact on the prevention and slowing diseases
like dementia and stress, or be used for mental recreation. This view is
gaining increasing importance considering that obsession with health is
becoming a growing form of contemporary consumer behavior;
E - Edutainment (the convergence of education and entertainment - Wolf ,
M.J. 1999) = Education (teaching, skills development: products are
increasingly expected to contribute to expanding the knowledge of users, to
develop or improve skills and capability) + Entertainment (amusement, fun:
there are noticeable expectations that a product contributes to pleasure and
fun, since, if it is not fun, the product initiates less interest, and consequently
less usage). Edutainment is a demand for education that entertains and
entertainment that is designed to educate.
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A tool for fostering creativity, based on the GAME model, should be
acceptable for any individual in the world, regardless of the characteristics
such as language, alphabet, education, experience, gender etc. Having in
mind these differences between people and the desire for expression of
unique personalities, a tool must allow each individual an authentic
expression without repetition over a long period of time; otherwise saturation
will occur, with no challenge, and no new ideas. Third, an individual is faced
with a lot of problems in the school, workplace, at home and in the overall
environment, so being mentally burdened in this state, under stress, trying to
deal with all the challenges and tasks, they are not able to commit to the
creative thinking that requires full concentration. The tool has to virtually
separate the individual from everyday problems and thus relieve them of
stress, allowing creative thinking. Fourth, the use of the tool has to be fun:
it has to allow users to use it at their own will; coercion causes resistance to
participation in the creative process. Bare fun only should not be the
strongest argument for using creative tools, because there are lots of other
ways of passive entertainment that neither require mental efforts nor produce
creative ideas as well; additional quality of the tool should be an educational
function, so that the user can learn something while having fun, and that
educational moment can raise the value and appreciation of the tools in the
eyes of the user.
All of the above requirements and attributes of the tool have a key goal – to
encourage each user to find hidden ideas that are stored somewhere or
initiated by its use, to emerge in the daylight and allow the end user to, by
evaluating generated ideas, their selection and implementation, ensure its
survival and prosperity in an increasingly competitive market.
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Fostering mental agility by Doris puzzle
Evaluation of generated ideas
SIX THINKING HATS100
Six thinking hats is an excellent proposal analysis tool created by Edward
de Bono (1985). It can be used in many and it’s particularly useful for
evaluating innovative and provocative ideas.
The six thinking hats technique overcomes difficulties of an adversarial
thinking by forcing everyone to think in parallel. As they wear each hat
they all have to think a certain way at the same time. Here is how it works.
The proposal is read out and then everyone puts on the following hats in
turn:
1. The white hat. This is the information hat, and people can ask for more
information or data to help analyze the proposal.
2. The red hat. This hat represents emotions. People have to say how this
proposal makes them feel emotionally. For example, some might say they
feel threatened or scared by this idea. Others might say they feel excited. It
is important to get the feelings expressed, as they can be hidden reasons
why people would oppose or support a proposal.
100 Sloane Paul: Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlocking the Creativity and Innovation in You and Your Team,
Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR, 2006, p.160
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3. The yellow hat. This hat is the optimism hat. Everyone in turn has to say
what is good about the proposal. Even if you think the idea stinks you have
to find some redeeming qualities and good points about it.
4. The black hat is the hat of pessimism. Everyone has to find fault with the
idea. Even if it was your idea and you are very proud of it you have to point
out some drawbacks and disadvantages.
5. The green hat is the hat of growth and possibilities. Everyone has to
suggest ways in which the idea could be adapted or improved to make it
work better.
6. The blue hat is the process hat that is used to check if the process is
working well. When you wear it, you discuss whether you are using the
method in the most effective way.
Generally, you will spend fairly little time with the blue hat, a little more
with the white and red hats, but most time with the yellow, black and green
hats. You can go back and forth from one hat to another, but the key rule is
that everyone must wear the same hat at the same time. It is good to have a
chairperson who holds up a coloured card or turns over a coloured cube to
show which hat is in use and to make sure everyone is on board. If the
chairperson sees someone using black hat thinking during the yellow hat
session, that person must be brought back into line.
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SPENDING £10101
This is an evaluation exercise to be used when you have generated a number
of good ideas and want to focus quickly on the most promising. Each
member of the team is given a notional £10 (or $10, 10 EUR or other
currency) to allocate on his or her favorite ideas. People can allocate £1 to
each of 10 ideas, £10 to one idea, or any mixture in between, but they cannot
allocate fractions of pounds. They work separately and in silence for a few
minutes to choose their selections. The funds are then allocated and totaled.
The projects with the most money attached are taken forward.
101 Sloane Paul: Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlocking the Creativity and Innovation in You and Your Team,
Kogan Page Ltd., London, GBR, 2006, p.162
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Part 3: DORIS Creative Workshop
In order to apply the methodology of stimulating creativity, the content and
the way of working with students through two creative workshops were
defined.
Session I
1. Survey - self-assessment of individual creativity
2. Introduction to the theory of creativity - main obstacles and stimulating
examples
3. Test question
4. Warming-up - Figures without a wrong solution
5. Foster the imagination - throw away the limits of the impossible
6. Group thinking -Brainstorming
7. Individual thinking - Brainwriting
Session II
8. Selection and evaluation of ideas - Six Thinking Hats
9. Virtual Stock Exchange - Investing in ideas
10. The creative workshop evaluation
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Session I, 1st Class
Realization
1. Survey - self-assessment of individual creativity
At the beginning of the workshop, the teacher gives a few introductory
remarks that today activity is being carried out within the framework of the
Erasmus+ project with the aim of stimulating creativity, and raises the
question: "Who is convinced that he/she is creative - let them raise their
hand." At this point the teacher should not give any details on what is meant
under creativity, or in any way influencing the expression (by encouraging
or challenging ...) the goal is to determine the number of students who are
convinced of their creative abilities on the basis of self-assessment. The total
number of present students and the number of students who declared
themselves as creative is recorded in the "Participants List" form. Each
student signs on the list beside their name, giving his/her Facebook address
(if he/she does not have a Facebook account, he/she writes his/her email
address) for inclusion in the “Future4us” Facebook group.
Place: ______________Date: _______________ School: ___________________________
Total number of students in the creative workshop: _____ Students with special needs _____
The number of students who declare themselves as creative (self-assessed): _______
Moderator(s):
____________________________________________________________________
No. Name and Surname Facebook address (or email) Signature
1
2
3
Estimated time for preparatory activities and signing: 15 minutes
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2. Introduction to the theory of creativity - obstacles and
stimulating examples
Explain a definition of creativity, e.g. "Creativity is the creation of new and
useful ideas by individuals or a small group of individuals working together."
In that sense, it is important to realize that creativity is not the creation of
only genius and epochal ideas that change the world (by happy individuals
having the gift of the Gods) but also all everyday ideas when human
imagination combines, changes, and creates something new. The ability to
create new ideas is found in the DNA of each individual since forever, thanks
to which capabilities the human race have survived to this day. All people
are creative, in a greater or lesser extent, in different areas: they can express
their creative potential on many everyday issues (making pizza from the left-
overs of the food from the fridge, or making a new creation from old clothes).
For example, make a pizza in the shape of a heart (instead of the usual round
shape) or your fruit cake from a combination of strawberries, raspberries,
Oreo biscuits and rice chocolate ... and call it after your name!
Theoretical framework (to understand why certain phases are included to
stimulate creativity)
About half of people believe that they are creative and the other half
suspected of their creative potential. This last group does not try to come up
with new ideas, and the first group, although it believes, rarely using its
innate creative abilities.
There are several obstacles to creativity that need to be understood to
overcome:
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(a) auto-censorship: people ignore their ideas before anyone hear them,
because they are not confident in their ability to come up with good ideas.
They think in the following way: it's nothing special, it's too simple, someone
has already figured it out before, there's no way to do it, etc. Before new
ideas have the opportunity to see the light of the day or to see others, most
people allow their ego to stop them. However, new ideas are born as sparks,
unless they are written down and/or shared with someone, they will be
forgotten and probably forever lost.
(b) Voice of Judgment: Many people hide their new ideas for fear that others
might judge them too harshly. People are afraid that their ideas can be
considered too bold or too challenging (for example: this will never work, it
will not be good enough, it's not the right time or it's the dumbest idea I've
ever heard) so they are ready to avoid laughter and rejection from their
friends and colleagues and trying to be inconspicuous. Because of this,
potentially good ideas die before they even pronounce it. One of the reasons
for this fear is cultural education in which people are taught to suppress their
ideas, if they do not reflect the views and opinions of their parents, teachers
or managers. Consequently, intellectual conformity (accepting majority
attitudes without critical thinking) is widespread.
(c) Fear of the unknown: While little children are always trying new things,
adolescents and adults do not dare to try new things, if they are not sure they
can do them well. Also, adolescents and adults can exhibit less creativity
than children, due to awareness of existing norms and cultural standards,
which make them more critical when assessing their own ideas (seeing only
the present and the existing level of technology and knowledge, and not the
future and new possibilities). People have a fear of the unknown and try to
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avoid looking dumb from others, so they stick to what they know. They
convince themselves that there are already too many changes in the world,
so it's best to do what they have always done - "We tried several years ago
and failed, we do not want any mistakes, so it's safe to work the way it's
always done ... we do not need any changes. "
(d) The fear of losing what we have: thanks to cultural heritage, people retain
their knowledge and experience locked in a safe or in their head. They prefer
not to share their ideas with others, fearing that someone could steal them
and take a credit for it. They prefer to keep their ideas unspoken rather than
discuss it with others, trying not to involve them in the decision-making
process and losing control over the process. However, a wise-man once said:
"You have to go down the mountain in order to climb the next mountain." In
order to look at their ideas, although they can be" genius "to their author,
they should hear the opinions (positive and negative) of other people (their
peers, teachers, parents, etc.) to determine whether they are on the right track
or overlooked some important details and, if necessary, redefined their ideas.
People have to move out of their comfort zone, open up to accept new
experiences and allow more creativity to enter their lives. Every human being
is a creative and engaging in creativity brings great pleasure, strengthens
self-esteem (belief in one's own values), stimulates imagination and creates
new challenges and insights.
Simulative examples of expressing creativity: (encouraging students to build
self-confidence by emphasizing the simplicity of ideas based on common
sense - with great social impact on life)
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- The first supermarket in America: the idea that customers serve
themselves instead of waiting for the seller to do it - „Turn the shop around
and let the customer help themselves to the goods they wanted and then
they paid at the end." (Michael Cullen, 1930)
Conveyer belt in the automotive industry: the idea that car parts come to
workers instead of workers going from one to another place to get parts -
“Instead of the workers moving to the car, let the car move to the workers“
(car assembly line - Henry Ford, 1913)
Car assembly line - The modified idea from the barn for livestock
Old garage turned into first supermarket
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- The first sale in installments: The idea that the principle of splitting the
wood into smaller pieces for firing in the stove, can apply for payment, so
farmers can pay machines from future income, in more installments. (Cyrus
McCormick, 1830).
3. Test question
You have just won a million dollars. What would you do? You have 24 to
spend it (by all possible ways - at your own choices). Do you have an idea
Modern payment on installments - based on the principle of sale of a mechanical reaper
from 1830
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how to spend it or you are going to return it due to lack of an idea what to
buy?
Anyone who knows the answer to this question - has an idea of how to spend
a million dollars - is creative!
Estimated time for this exercise: 5 minutes.
4. Warming-up - Figures without a wrong solution
Fostering DNA creativity - by Doris tool
In order to overcome auto-censorship, voice of judgment and fear of the
unknown - obstacles under: a, b and c), participants of a creative workshop
should be given the opportunity to use the right side of the brain, and should
encourage their visual and spatial cognitive abilities. The game is the best
form for this purpose, because, unlike formal knowledge tests (answering
questions on memory, analytical abilities, logical reasoning, language
expression, etc. - left brain functions), the game does not cause stage fright,
stress, and fear, but is accepted as an informal activity which, although it is
taken seriously in order to achieve the best results, the players remember
that it is a fun and relaxing "game" that relieves them from the burden of
responsibility ‘in the real world’- from "serious" tasks - such as memorizing
facts and their exact reproduction, and, unlike formal tests, there are no
negative consequences anyway. This should be emphasized particularly -
there are no wrong solutions.
Participants of the workshop should be given a set of creative games "Doris"
of 24 octagonal tiles and a paper (name tag) where they will write in capital
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letters their name, surname and class, and on the back-side the title of their
works (once when they make them).
*Serial number of student (from the attendance list)
Participants should be given the following instructions for DORIS:
You have 24 tiles in the form of an octagon. Using all tiles, make several
figures (3 to 5) at your own choice (live creature - plant or animal or
object). No need to take into account the color matching, each tile contact
(full, half, only vertex ...) is acceptable. Not all tiles have to touch adjacent
tiles; some may be freely separated (for example, two eyes). Each figure in
2D is acceptable (not 3D). There are no wrong solutions, only good, better
and the best. Take a photo of each figure with your mobile phone so that
your name tag is visible on the photo. Give a name to each figure, type it
on the back-side of the paper tag.
Estimated time for this exercise: 15 - 20 minutes
Students can visit other participants in the classroom to get inspiration for
their own figure or consult one another. The goal is to break the initial fear
School: _________________ Class: ______
Name ______________________________
Surname ___________________________
No* _____
Work No. 1
__________________________________________
Work No. 2 ________________________________
Work No. 3________________________________
Work No. 4 _______________________________
Work No. 5 _______________________________
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of the failure to make the figures, having in mind that there is no previous
experience or a defined task that should be solved. Encourage participants
with the notion that they do not look for the perfect shape, but the idea that
is original, can be humorous, silly, bold, different. Use imagination and
your sense of beauty, without self-criticism and indecision, according to the
principle: imagine, make and enjoy your (masterpiece) work.
Session I 2nd Class
5. Foster the imagination - throw away the limits of the
impossible
After warming-up, move to the next level of idea generating: imagine a
product that currently does not exist, and you would like to appear in the
near future, because it would be useful and make life easier. There is a
slogan: Impossible does not exist, it is only a matter of time when
imagination will turn into reality. Think about what that might be,
disregarding limits of the current possibilities and technology. Time to
think: 5 minutes. Try to visualize this object in the next 5 minutes with the
help of Doris tiles, not looking for perfection of the shape, but the
usefulness of the idea and the ability of other participants to understand
what you think.
When all participants complete their work, students can look at other
people's works and inquire about what they represent. No critical
discussion on ideas for new products or the way of visual presentation of
the idea is allowed here - just collecting inspirations for new ideas in the
next stages.
The goal of this exercise is the “out of the box” thinking - rejection of the
limits and the journey to the Colorful Dreamland. The idea should be
visualized and tried to present through the form (shaping the idea) and
orally (explaining what a new idea represents) so that others will
understand and get an incentive for their similar, modified or completely
different idea in the next stages of generating ideas. Every student makes
photos of their work with a mobile phone.
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Estimated time for this exercise: 15 - 20 minutes
6. Group thinking -Brainstorming
In order to encourage group thinking in the next phase, it is necessary to
approach the mental exercise according to the method of Alex Osborn from
1938, called Brainstorming.
This technique of group generating ideas is very simple and involves all
participants in a creative workshop. However, one should bear in mind the
weakness of this technique: interactive groups produce almost half the
ideas than the same number of individuals acting alone, one of the reasons
for reduced creativity being the fear of the negative evaluation of others.
Reduced creativity in groups is a by-product of a desire for consensus.
Individuals in groups tend to share and discuss ideas that are common.
Ideas that are not common have fewer chances to come to the front,
without giving the chance for considering alternative or new ideas. Another
reason for reducing creativity in groups is convergent (a tendency for
harmonious) thinking, stimulated by the majority, with the majority
generating fewer new or original ideas. Also, because of the loud and
intrusive individuals in the group, those quieter individuals who are less
free in expressing their ideas often refuse to participate, especially in
proposing their new ideas, not wanting to be the object of laughing or
misunderstanding. Some individuals follow a line of least resistance and
are inclined to suggest only ideas that they believe will appeal to the
majority of the present people (populism).
For these reasons, the basic principles that eliminate the negative
consequences of this technique should be guided: 1) defer judgment, 2)
strive for quantity, 3) seek unusual ideas, and 4) combine or build on
others’ ideas.
Simply put, one needs to look for new ideas as many as possible, without
extensive explanation - short and clear.
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In order to encourage the richness of bold ideas it is necessary that no one
is critical, negative, or denies ideas. Every idea that is spoken - no matter
how stupid - must be recorded. The rule about suspending judgement
during the idea generation phase is so important that it is worth enforcing
rigorously. A good technique is to give the participants a water pistol;
anyone who is critical gets squirted. In the absence of a water pistol, a glass
of water can also be served!).
The more ideas the better. Crazy thoughts that are completely unworkable
are often the springboards for other ideas that can be adapted into great new
solutions. So, keep the crazy ideas coming – you have to kiss a lot of frogs
to find one real prince!
Practical Advice for Organizing Brainstorming Sessions:
The teacher asks the question: You are in New York and want to start a
business to earn enough money to live. You have a modest budget to get
started and you need to think about what kind of services you could offer as
a respond to need of people (and their families) or companies that have
enough money but do not have time or the knowledge or the will to do it by
themselves or have no awareness of what other people could do for them to
make their life easier. Each idea should be written on a pre-prepared form,
next to the author's name:
No. Name and
surname
proposal proposal proposal
1
2
3
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Any criticism, discussion, voting, etc. is forbidden. Every idea, no matter
how crazy, unnecessary, too simple or unreachable to someone, must be
recorded without delay. There is no choice of the best or craziest idea,
when all the ideas are exhausted, the brainstorming session is concluded.
Someone will have more than three ideas, someone less, and someone may
not have one, no need to insist on suggestions, only students should be
encouraged to freely say each and even an idea that they are not even sure
that someone is needed or it is achievable, the motto is: It is important to
participate. The aim of this exercise is to set free imagination and the
students are encouraged to freely verbalize their thoughts, without fear of
assessment, negative thinking or any consequences.
Estimated duration of exercise: 15 minutes.
The Brainstorming form is preserved and archived as the basis for
intellectual output.
7. Individual thinking - Brainwriting
In previous phases, students have gained enough courage to generate bold
and fresh business ideas, but in order to avoid the last obstacles (under "d")
to completely free expression of creativity, access to individual thinking in
complete privacy without revealing identity and without fear of a majority
position is necessary. The aim of this exercise is to overcome intellectual
conformity (acceptance of majority opinion or attitudes of authorities) and
any ideas that may have already been in the subconscious or generated
during previous exercises on the basis of other ideas, based on association,
comparison, modification or improvement, should be written on paper.
Unlike the Brainstorming technique, when every participant had to wait for
his/her order to say his/her idea and possibly give up because a similar idea
had already been pronounced by some of the participants, there is no
waiting, everyone can focus on his/her thoughts and quietly write ideas
he/she wants. Although according to the original concept it is envisaged
that the papers with the written ideas are exchanged and complemented by
each other during the duration of this exercise, in this case there will be no
exchange of papers in order to preserve the anonymity of each participant
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in the session - the authors of the ideas, to encourage the absolute freedom
of expression of their ideas and prevent any fear of judgment, criticism or
mockery by anyone, as well as the "theft" of ideas. In the next phases, some
ideas will be evaluated and supplemented, but without revealing the
identity of the authors.
Practical suggestions for Brainwriting workshop:
The moderator will give each participant a paper of A-4 format in which
students will write their ideas on the topic:
Suggestions for new products and/or services. Estimated duration of
exercise: 10 minutes.
Students can suggest ideas about new products and services, whatever they
want, whether their ideas that have already been generated in previous
exercises, new ideas that have been initiated by the ideas they have
previously learned from others (associations) or ideas of others that are
significantly modified, repaired, or simplified.
Under the concept of new products, students should be aware that this can
be existing products that have an improvement (additional function or
value, or have different packaging or use), another way of providing
existing services, existing technology that is applied on other devices or
fields, revolutionary inventions, or Innovations that replace complex and
costly devices with substantially less expensive products, but with an
acceptable level of quality).
Examples of new products that have transformed the simple idea into
profitable products or patents:
iPod - instead of buying a CD compact disk, down-loading only songs that
the user wants at a price of 99 cents per a single file.
MP3 player - instead of the bulky CD compact disc and CD player,
reducing the file size with acceptable loss of quality (especially for use
over portable devices) is a significantly smaller device with a high
capacity.
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ATMs - instead of the classic bank counters served by workers, a machine
which pay-off money 24 hours, 7 days a week, with no breaks, no strikes,
no demands for salary increase, no sickness or unkindness for the
customers.
After 10 minutes, students sign their papers and submit them to the
moderator. All papers are deposited in the folder as the basis for
Intellectual output.
The first session is over. The next session will be continued at once, next
day or at the latest next week.
Session II 3rd class
8. Selection and evaluation of ideas - 6 Thinking Hats
A moderator selects 3-5 ideas of all the ideas generated during the
Brainwriting exercise, which he considers the most original and appropriate
for group evaluation.
Without revealing the name of the author, each of the selected ideas
moderator prints (write-out) on the sheets of paper A-4 with the marking of
the simple numbers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and informs students what ideas are
selected for evaluation.
The most effective way to evaluate the idea in groups, with the
involvement of all students - participants of the previous Session I, is the
method of Six Thinking Hats (Edward de Bono).
This technique is particularly effective for the peaceful evaluation,
adaptation and development of initially provocative and innovative ideas.
It is necessary to prepare 6 hats (also paper hats are acceptable) in the
following colors: White, Red, Yellow, Blue, Green and Black.
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The way this tool works is as follows: each proposal, one at a time, starting
with the first, is read, and then all the participants give their opinion,
depending on which hat the moderator has on the head:
1. White hat. This is an information hat and participants can ask the
moderator for additional information or information that helps in analyzing
the proposal.
2. Red hat. This hat represents emotions. Participants have to say: how did
this proposal make them feel emotionally? For example, some say they feel
threatened or scared by this idea. Others will say they feel excited. It is
important that feelings are expressed, because there may be hidden reasons
why participants oppose or support the proposal.
3. Yellow hat. This is a hat of optimism. Everyone has to say what is good
about the proposal. Even if you think the idea is stupid, you have to find
some qualities and good reasons for it.
4. Black hat is a pessimism hat. Everyone has to find a mistake (or a weak
point) in the idea. Even if it was your idea and you are very proud of it, you
have to point out some defects and disadvantages (especially because each
idea is anonymous).
5. Green hat is a hat of growth and opportunity. Everyone has to suggest
ways in which an idea could be adapted or improved to function better.
6. Blue hat is a hat of a manager, used to check if the proposed concept
can function in the most efficient way or not. For example, given the
problem that solves, is the proposed idea the best solution and whether (and
within a time frame) it is possible to implement it.
For each of the selected 3 to 5 ideas (preferably more), repeat the
evaluation process, bearing in mind that the discussion is completed by the
end of the class.
The aim of this exercise is to make each idea illuminated by multiple
angles and identify weaknesses or hidden good attributes that were not
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visible at first glance. For example, a "genius" idea can become an almost
useless or seemingly simple idea could light up passion when all hidden
possibilities and utilities are discovered.
On a special form (table 3), next to the ideas, the most significant
suggestions for improvements, obtained during the discussions under the
green hat, must be recorded.
Estimated duration of exercise: 45 minutes
Session II Fourth 4th class
9. Virtual Stock Exchange - Investing in ideas
Now is the time to check which of the proposed ideas, having in mind all
the remarks and suggestions made by the participants in the previous
evaluation of the idea by the method of the 6 Thinking Hats, is attractive
enough to convince investors on the stock exchange to invest their money
into their realization. Given that the authors of these ideas that are chosen
are not known (except for the mediator), it is assumed that each student
will be guided primarily by his personal impression and by believing that
the proposed products and services deserve to become innovations in the
market, either because they think their investment will make a profit, or
that humankind will benefit from it or for some other reason - nevertheless,
it is important that this is their autonomous decision, not biased (for
example, because it would be liked the majority, then they follow investors
who invest the money into particular idea, or to support friends, no matter
they do not believe in their idea, or because they want to look human-like
before others, invest in unprofitable ideas, etc.).
Practical guidance for independent autonomous investment in ideas:
Each student should be given 10 banknotes of $ 100 (or a total of $ 1,000).
Place papers on the table with the inscription of the selected ideas (for
example, if 5 ideas are selected, put 5 papers with regular numbers 1, 2, 3,
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4, 5 and written ideas titles). Inform the participants what idea is under
what number, in order for students to know in advance where their
favorites are.
Each one of the students approaches a table with ideas and invests a certain
amount into the ideas he/she wants (for example, for the first idea gives $
200, the fourth $ 100, and the fifth $ 700), but so he/she puts the banknotes
underneath the paper so that the next student cannot see how much has
been invested previously. The next student does the same, determines
independently how much he/she will invest, having in mind that he/she can
allocate the sum to all ideas, only to some ideas or the whole amount
investing in just one idea.
Practical guidance for independent autonomous investment in ideas:
The moderator writes for each student that he/she has distributed his/her
stake: next to the name of the first student, moderator writes:
(idea 1) 200, (idea 4) 100, (idea 5) 700. In such a way eventually, it is
known who invested money in which idea and consequently the idea or
ideas with the most money invested in it will have the greatest chance of
being realized. This confirms that investors who invested the most money
in the winning idea had a good sense of investment, and the authors of
these ideas get more confidence that he/she is capable of generating
successful business ideas.
When all investors invest their money, the moderator approaches the
counting of money for each of the offered ideas and announces the order:
for example, idea number 3 has received a total of $23,500, idea number 1
got $ 4,200, and ideas number 2, 4 and 5 at $ 300.
The moderator now announces the results, ranging from the last place to
the first place (for example, the 5th place wins the idea "idea title" with
$300 invested, invented by the author "name and surname." Then, fourth,
third, in the end, a winning idea - the name of the idea, the amount of funds
invested, and the name and surname of the winner).
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After photographing all 5 authors who hold papers with their ideas, the
final activity - the survey - can be accessed.
Duration of exercise: 30 minutes
10. The creative workshop evaluation
Survey: Participants present their impressions, level of satisfaction with
expectations, their remarks, suggestions and proposals and in the end
provide their answers through the evaluation questionnaire to the following
questions:
1. Assessment of the quality of creative workshops by students - grades 1
to 5 (1 -2 - 3 - 4 - 5), where 1 represents the lowest grade, and 5 - the
highest grade.
1.1. Are the creative workshops, and to what extent, have fulfilled your
expectations?
1.2. How much do you think the workshop contributed to raising or
discovering your creativity?
1.3. How much the topics that were the subject of the workshops were up-
to-date or inspirational?
1.4. How satisfied are you with the conduct of workshops by teachers?
1.5. How much experience from the workshops could you put into
practice?
2. Ranking of activities* in creative workshops (descriptive):
2.1. Which class (or activity) of the 6 previous ones seems to you to be
most interesting?
2.2. Explain your choice.
2.3. Which class (or activity) of the 6 previous ones seems to be the most
useful to you.
2.4. Please give us your reasons.
2.5. Your suggestion: what would you change - run differently, what did
you throw out, and what did you add to make the workshop more
successful?
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* The activities are: 1. Making Doris figures, 2. Making the Product of your
imagination, 3. Brainstorming, 4. Brainwriting, 5. Six Thinking Hats, 6. Investing
money on the stock market
The survey is conducted with pre-prepared forms, with complete
anonymity, and an example is given in the following appendix:
No. Question Grade/answer
1 Are the creative workshops, and to what extent, have fulfilled
your expectations?
1 2 3 4 5
2 How much do you think the workshop contributed to raising or
discovering your creativity?
1 2 3 4 5
3 How much the topics that were the subject of the workshops
were up-to-date or inspirational?
1 2 3 4 5
4 How satisfied are you with the conduct of workshops by
teachers?
1 2 3 4 5
5 How much experience from the workshops could you put into
practice?
1 2 3 4 5
6 Which activity* of the 6 previous ones seems to you to be most
interesting?
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 Explain your choice
8 Which activity* of the 6 previous ones seems to be the most
useless to you?
1 2 3 4 5 6
9 Please give us your reasons
10 Your suggestion: what would you change - run differently, what did you throw out, and what did you
add to make the workshop more successful?
11 Should these workshops be introduced as a compulsory subject
in the classroom?
YES NO DON’T
know
* The activities are: 1. Making Doris figures, 2. Making the Product of your imagination, 3.
Brainstorming, 4. Brainwriting, 5. Six Thinking Hats, 6. Investing money on the stock market
Date: ____________________ Survey is anonymous
Do not sign
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Place: ______________Date: _______________ School: _______________________________
Total number of students in the creative workshop: _______ Students with special needs _______
The number of students who declare themselves as creative (self-assessed): __________________
Moderator(s): ___________________________________________________________________
No. Name and surname Facebook address (or email) Signature
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Table 1: Participant attendance
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No. Name and
surname
proposal proposal proposal
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Table 2: Brainstorming
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No. IDEA SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS
(from Green Hat)
1
2
3
4
5
Table 3: Six Thinking Hats
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No. Name and surname Idea 1 Idea 2 Idea 3 Idea 4 Idea 5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
Table 4: Investment
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No. Question Grade/Answer
1 Are the creative workshops, and to what extent, have fulfilled
your expectations?
1 2 3 4 5
2 How much do you think the workshop contributed to raising
or discovering your creativity?
1 2 3 4 5
3 How much the topics that were the subject of the workshops
were up-to-date or inspirational?
1 2 3 4 5
4 How satisfied are you with the conduct of workshops by
teachers?
1 2 3 4 5
5 How much experience from the workshops could you put into
practice?
1 2 3 4 5
6 Which activity* of the 6 previous ones seems to you to be
most interesting?
*see the note under the table
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 Explain your choice:
8 Which activity* of the 6 previous ones seems to be the most
useless to you?
*see the note under the table
1 2 3 4 5 6
9 Please give us your reasons:
10 Your suggestion: what would you change - run differently, what did you throw out, and what did
you add to make the workshop more successful?
11 Should these workshops be introduced as a compulsory
subject in the classroom?
YES NO DON’T
know
* The activities are: 1. Making Doris figures, 2. Making the Product of your imagination, 3.
Brainstorming, 4. Brainwriting, 5. Six Thinking Hats, 6. Investing money on the stock market
Date: ____________________ Survey is anonymous
Do not sign
Table 5: SURVEY
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Reminder
Preparation for the Session I
1. Prepare the Participants attendance list (Table 1) and fill out the names of students,
2. Prepare the name tags, inserting a serial number based on the list of attendance,
3. Prepare Doris sets for all participants, Table 2 (Brainstorming) and 30 blanc paper
sheets.
Realization of Session I Class 1
4. Each student-participant gets a name tag and a Doris set. Ask them to fulfil a name
tag with their name and surname.
5. Let student fulfill their Facebook-address (or email) and sign the Participant
attendance list
6. In the meanwhile explain in short that these activities are part of the EU project in
which School participate in order to foster student’s creativity and innovation
capabilities for their future life.
7. Run the survey - self-assessment of individual creativity: who is self-confident of
their creativity; register that number of students in the list Participant attendance.
8. Explain that creativity is integral part of everyone’s DNA and is ability to make new
and useful ideas. Remind them of the example of simple ideas that turns into great
inventions (such as Supermarket, Conveyer belt, Installments payment...)
9. Test question: idea how to spend a million dollars in 24 hours
10. Ask students to make several free form figures using 24 Doris tiles, with the basic
rule - 2D figures, any shape they like, no color edge-matching, no wrong solutions,
make photos of figures with a name tag visible, and write out the titles of figures on the
back-side of name tags. End of class 1.
Realization of Session I Class 2
11. Ask students to imagine a product that currently does not exist, but they would like
to appear in the near future: try to make a shape that represents that product: no perfect
shape, but fresh idea.
12. Invite students to take a look the other student’s works and make inquires around to
get inspiration for their own ideas, expanding insights and own imagination
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13. Brainstorming: Ask students to participate in a group thinking session - suggest
their ideas what new kind of services can offer to people (individuals, families) or
companies who wish to spare their time or have no clue that someone can do useful and
innovative services for them. Each idea has to be written down in the Table 2:
Brainstorming
14. Brainwriting: each student gets a paper sheet and a task to write out their
suggestions for new product/services. Remind them of iPod, MP3, ATMs -
simplification of existing products/services and completely new, not seen before: micro-
wave, laser printer, mobile-phone, You-tube, solar panels...
15. Collect all paper-sheets. End of 2nd class and Session I.
Preparation for the Session II
1. Prepare Table 3 form (6 thinking hats), 6 HATS, 5 blanc paper-sheets, Table 4
(Investment), 300 bank-notes of 100$ and 30 Survey forms (table 5).
2. From all collected ideas of Brainwriting session, select 5 the best ideas according to
its originality, and eligibility for group evaluation
3. Take 5 blanc paper sheets and write out the short titles of 5 selected ideas, one by
one.
Realization of Session II Class 3
4. Pronounce the 5 ideas that will be evaluated using the Six Thinking Hats Technique
and explain that each of 5 ideas will be discussed, one by one. Authors of ideas stay
anonymous.
5. Put the RED Hat and ask participants to say how they feel about the idea: if it is
going to be realized, it makes me feel excited, scared, intrigued, indifferent, jealous
(because it is not mine) etc.
6. Put the YELLOW Hat and ask students what good points they can see in this idea,
even it is not useful in someone’s opinion.
7. Put the BLACK Hat and ask students what bad points they can see in this idea, even
it is very useful in someone’s opinion.
8. Put the BLUE Hat and ask students do they think that is the best solution for the
problem it solves.
9. Put the GREEN Hat and ask student to suggest improvement and/or changes to make
it even better than it was at the beginning. Each suggestion must be recorded in the form
Table 3 (6 Thinking Hats) next to its idea title.
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* The White Hat will not be used, since the original additional information can be given
by the author, who will not be revealed at this stage.
Realization of Session II Class 4
10. Give to each student 10 “banknotes” of $100 (printed on the color-printer for this
occasion only).
11. Invite students (one by one) to invest money into favorite ideas: all money in one
chosen idea, or certain amounts for chosen ideas, as they like. Each investment must be
recorded in a Table 4: Investment. Cover the invested money by a paper sheets, not
allowing others to see what idea getting more money.
12. Once the investment is over, count the money for each idea.
13. Pronounce the investment results, staring from the 5th place: title of idea, invested
sum of money, name and surname of the author. Continue to the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st
place.
14. Make photograph of the winners, and the whole class.
15. Spread the survey sheets and ask participant to fill them out. Collect and keep them
all.
The workshop is over.
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